Dear students majoring in "professional" majors,

Please reconsider.

A post in Inside Higher Ed makes an argument I have consistently made: that majoring in professional (or, as the author puts it, a "career-aligned") majors is not the guaranteed job-preparer they seem to be or are even relevant to what you will do: a recent study found that just over a quarter of "degree-holders are working in a job that is directly related to their college major."

Look at me: I was an English major, which totally prepared me for running a non-profit organization (insert eye roll). When I went to college, there was no such thing as a nonprofit management major (and I doubt there will ever be one at my college), but I learned a lot in that major that prepared me for the job I have now, including critical thinking, communication skills, and the ability to understand different perspectives.

The world of work is changing so much faster than even the (relatively) short time ago when I was in college. Does anyone really think -- including the faculty and institutions creating these majors -- that a student in one of these very specialized majors will use the knowledge they gained during their course of study even a few years after graduation?

I get it though: pursuing an industry-specific (and often industry-approved or even industry-designed) major makes things easier in terms of getting a job because it's a linear, uncomplicated path from college to a job after college. However, what then? What happens when your field is radically changed or even eliminated? What happens if you end up hating that field once you get that job?

We in higher education would better prepare students to ensure that students leave college with a good thinking head on their shoulders, good communication skills, good interpersonal skills, knowledge of the fundamentals of a discipline or area, and then some supervised and integrated professional experience so they can enter the workplace ready to learn, ready to work, and ready to adapt. Employers will teach the specifics of their industry; they cannot be expected to teach students how to think, how to write, how to speak, and how to interact with others in the workplace and in the world: that's our job.

What Matters with Career Services; or, What’s the Matter with Career Services?

Recently, Handshake, the career services platform that has become a leader in the field at a breathtakingly fast clip, published a white paper and a webinar on “Outcomes and Metrics that Matter” as it pertains to college education and career preparation. Their subtitle for the topic, “Embedding Career Services at Higher Education’s Core,” is exciting, as this is an effort that has been at the forefront of discussions in higher education for a while now. 

However, it appears the authors are advocating an insufficient approach, despite nods in the direction that I think higher education needs to go. While talking about holistic approaches to student preparation for life after college, the authors seem to want to merely place the career services office at the center of the institution, rather than taking the more radical, risky, and challenging step of truly integrating student learning and preparation for life after college. 

While Christine Cruzvergara noted in the webinar that “The problem is most institutions are not thinking about this systemically….They’re thinking about it from a programmatic approach,” the ideas presented in their white paper and webinar still use that latter approach in seeing career services as a program that is merely added to or positioned differently within the curriculum.

Indeed, their approach to integrating career development does not really seem like integration at all. As one of the ways in which leaders can “position career services to thrive in the future,” they recommend that institutions “integrate career readiness education into the academic curriculum [by] offering credit or other policy-based motivators to ensure student engagement.” Such an approach does not seem like true integration, but merely another box students would stamp in the bingo-card approach they are too often likely to, forced to, and/or encouraged to take with their degree requirements. 

More promising would be another of their recommendations: “Teach students to articulate and translate their learning from the classroom to their work experiences—and back again.” AAC&U President Lynn Pasquerella in the webinar argues for just such an effort: “We need to equip students to name and reflect on the skills that matter and ...how these skills can connect to their career aspirations….We need to give students a way to tell their stories.” 

Great, but who does this kind of teaching? This kind of teaching can be done by career services professionals, but they often lack the time, resources, relationships, or access to adequately do so. The actual regular teachers of these students seem like obvious candidates, but they too lack the time and resources, as well as the training to help students. 

So then what do we do? Like I saw when doing research on approaches to improving diversity education and now see leading students to see the connections between academics, experiential education, and their future career, students are loath to actively pursue and be properly educated by programs and classes explicitly dedicated to these issues.

In other words, despite knowing that they should, often students either don’t care enough or don’t have enough time and resources to do this work. This is why we have to truly integrate this work into the curriculum and the classroom because we need to make students do it without them knowing or without taking more time out of their busy schedule. The latter issue is often a question of access and must be addressed by institutions. However, the former issue may stem from us providing students with what they don’t want or perhaps even need.

Incidentally, I think this lack of motivation, wherewithal, or resources may partially explain the popularity of majors tied directly to jobs and the obsession with credentialing: it’s baked in; students don’t have to work to figure out how what they learn in school is tied to the job they’ll have after they graduate. 

However, what we’re setting up by encouraging these expectations and these increasingly specific majors is not merely a diminution of the relevance of liberal education, but dissatisfied students in the long run. A recent article in the Washington Post discussed the uptick in people quitting jobs during the pandemic, in part because they realized just how dissatisfied they are. I fear that we set students up for a lifetime of such dissatisfaction if we do not equip them with the skills and knowledge to pivot--and tell the story of why they are pivoting and how they can do so. 

Moreover, by centralizing career services, we reinforce the message that a college education is the means to the end of a job (or career, to be sanguine). This formula is anathema to most of us in higher education and is, I think, increasingly anathema to students who see higher education and a career as means to the end of a happy, productive life. 

Pasquerella says in her foreword to the white paper,            

Ultimately, the goals and effects of embedding career services into the liberal education core must be reciprocal. On the one hand, the move should ensure that career services is not narrowly focused (either on immediate postgraduation outcomes or on a too-narrow set of skills as “marketable” or directly related to employment or job prep), but rather that it helps students understand how the fullness of their college experience prepares them for long-term career success. On the other hand, it should render visible for students that what they’re gaining from their experiences can be applied to the world of work—and how to apply it.

In many ways, I couldn’t agree more -- and we try to do just that in our program to connect students’ academic and professional (and civic) lives. However, this white paper does not follow the holistic vision Pasquerella sets forth, nor one of its author’s declarations from eight years ago that “career services must die”: instead, it renders career services as yet another measurable aspect of higher education and centers it at institutions without truly integrating it. 

And, perhaps we’re talking about different services rendered by “career services.” In the webinar, Andy Chan posits that “schools have to be bold enough to say we actually know better than you, student,...about what you need to know to help you get prepared for the world of work.” That’s probably true, when it comes to how to get a job and professional skills and communication; however, when it comes to being prepared for how a student wants to approach, participate in, and utilize the world of work, I am not sure that we do know better than they do.

This is hard work and I certainly don’t have all of the answers, but I don’t think repackaging, recentering, and regenerating career services will accomplish the goals of a holistic education we all aspire to provide. To do so, I think it is imperative to, at the very least, involve students, faculty, and staff in developing creative and institution-specific approaches that meaningfully connect learning, vocation, and career to fulfill the mission of each institution and the mission of higher education--to define exactly what are the “outcomes and metrics that matter.”

Guide to Online Internships for Internship Hosts

Introduction

In the last few months, the working world has changed to become more reliant on technology; nowhere has this shift been more dramatic than in Washington, DC—a place that relies on personal contacts and interaction to get things done. As the government, organizations, and businesses have all had to adjust, normal operations have changed dramatically, and that includes a distinctive and often indispensable component of DC working life: the internship. We are here to help you determine and then create online internships that are valuable to you, the intern, and your organization.

Why You Should Still Have Interns—but Online

• Projects still need to be completed

• Students still want to learn professional skills from you

• Interns still can be productive and easily managed and mentored

• Your organization still needs to build a talent pipeline

• Your organization still needs to spread the message about its work

• Online internships will likely still be around in the future

How to Mentor Interns Online Successfully and Efficiently

Set the same kinds of goals

• The purpose of an internship, whether in person or online, is to build skills, knowledge, and confidence, while providing mentorship and networking opportunities. In the end, students want to come away with tangible products and experience to be applied to their resumes and professional growth and feel like they made major contributions to a team.

• Give interns a sense of what success looks like as well as ways to track progress, so everyone is on the same page.

• Our students set learning goals for the internship with you from the very start, so everyone is on the same page.

Use an online internship to innovate and explore

• Most of us had our world flipped upside down trying to take our work and productivity online. However, as many of us found out, there are a lot of tools to help in that transition.  Online platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, Go to Meeting, Zoom, FaceTime, etc. allow us to stay connected with colleagues, clients, and especially new interns—and communicate differently.

• This adjustment to new ways of working together can inspire creativity and provide the opportunity to introduce online tools and media to your regular work sphere. In fact, driven and innovative students versed in the digital world are likely to encourage new ways to approach remote work and teach new digital skills and strategy.

Emphasize projects and tasks

• To move an internship online, reach out to staff and colleagues and identify projects and tasks that are most accessible for remote work and outline a catalog of projects to distribute to interns based on their strengths and interests.

• Tasks and responsibilities that follow strict stages and result in final products are most suitable to remote work.

• Tangible, structured projects help promote clear goals and expectations in completing the work.

• Adapting projects that are part of a larger initiative are also likely to make the intern feel engaged and see exactly how they are contributing to the team’s efforts and engage the rest of your team in the intern's success.

Onboard interns thoughtfully and completely

Without the initial meet and greet in person, onboarding interns might require some initial extra organization and planning.

• Compile and share organizational information and resources in advance, so interns can learn about the mission, focus, and projects they will become a part of.

• Supervisors or mentors can even record a welcome video with bios and an outline of the goals and expectations to get students excited.

• Provide access to technological solutions as early as possible along with training materials: while this generation of interns is tech-savvy, do not assume they know everything.

• Creating a handbook or guidelines in advance describing rules and norms for communication can be valuable in the long run. This handbook might outline preferred communication methods (email versus texting, online chat platform, scheduled calls, etc.), as well as regular hours.

• Establish expectations for when interns should “clock in/clock out” and provide a detailed schedule with timelines and deadlines for project-based work to reduce confusion and establish consistency for an intern working at home alone.

Create structure

• Create a project calendar or schedule with deadlines and regular check-ins to manage interns' responsibilities.

• Instituting “living” documents or spreadsheets to track progress and introduce new tasks is a simple method for keeping up to date on intern and team progress. These documents can also act as a forum for questions and relevant resources, reducing the need for additional meetings/calls.

Communicate clearly and frequently

One of our students who completed an online internship noted that constant communication via email, text, and Google docs was imperative," so it is clear communication in this new context is vital.

• Regular check-ins and inclusion in staff meetings will instill camaraderie and clarity. You want your interns to feel included as valued team members, which means providing opportunities to ask questions and learn about larger organizational directives.

• Video chat is the new normal for everyone to stay in touch and can be a useful tool to introduce colleagues and mentors, check in on project status, and overall just stay engaged. However, that doesn’t mean you need to schedule 20 video calls a week. Studies show that 2-3 check-ins per week create a productive environment.

• Consider frequent check-ins at the beginning of the internship (even hourly) to build trust and camaraderie.

• Consider designating a second supervisor to provide the intern with another source of information and guidance.

Engage the intern with your team and your organization

Right now, interns cannot just pop into offices or run into people in the break room to ask questions and get to know you, your team, or your organization. One of our students who completed an online internship noted that online interactions with fellow interns and other colleagues were important:  having that extra support helps in developing a professional network and a personal support system.“ As much as feasible, it is important to engage interns as much as possible using some of these opportunities:

• Staff and department meetings allow the intern to engage with other colleagues and learn about organization projects, initiatives, and goals. Here, interns can see how their work and tasks fit into the larger picture of the organization.

• Virtual lunches, coffee breaks, and happy hours provide the chance to get to know staff and interns in a less formal context and on a more personal level. While these interactions might have developed more organically in an office setting, proposing casual online meetups takes pressure off of the interns as they learn to navigate the new networking world.

• Optional or extra-departmental meetings are opportunities for interns to learn more about the organization and its activities. When in the office, interns are likely to identify additional projects and departments they want to learn more about, yet that is not as simple from their home desks. Supervisors can encourage or recruit interns to attend non-mandatory meetings to take notes or just sit in on meetings that interest them. Participation would not only provide greater organizational interaction for the intern, but might also save the supervisor from yet another muted Zoom meeting.

Managing an online internship is not an exact science, but it is an excellent opportunity for mentors, managers, and interns to learn together

The massive transition to remote work created an unexpected learning curve. Since we’re all going through the same thing, remember to be kind to yourself, your team, and the interns who are eager to learn and contribute. This is a unique opportunity to adapt and build your organization’s capacity in terms of digital tools, internal/external communication strategies, and finding ways to innovate.

As you transition to online internships, we recommend that you take a moment to review guidance from the Department of Labor about the Fair Labor Standards Act and paid versus unpaid internships on its website.

Announcing a New Partnership

The partnership between the Public Leadership Education Network and the Washington Internship Institute will enable more college women to gain valuable experience and insights in the nation's capital.

The Public Leadership Education Network (PLEN) and the Washington Internship Institute have established a partnership to enhance their current programs and reach more students, institutions, and organizations. The partnership provides the organizations access to the other's partner institutions and guarantees discounts to students from those institutions for the organizations' programs.

"Both of our organizations emphasize the importance for college students to gain real-world experience and access to mentors in their field, so this partnership suits both organizations well," noted Greg Weight, President of the Washington Internship Institute.

The partnership provides PLEN's 18 member institutions with discounted tuition for their students who participate in the Washington Internship Institute internship program. Institutions who partner with the Washington Internship Institute will receive a discounted membership rate to PLEN and their students will receive discounted tuition for PLEN seminars.

Both organizations hope that this partnership is the start of a much deeper relationship: "I hope that we can explore other ways to collaborate, including how we can contribute to the Washington Internship Institute’s programming for students and faculty, and how the Washington Internship Institute can contribute to PLEN’s educational seminars,” added Sarah Bruno, PLEN’s Executive Director.

Founded in 1978, the mission of PLEN is to increase the number of women in top leadership positions influencing all aspects of the public policy process. Each year, PLEN brings hundreds of women students from colleges and universities across the country to Washington, D.C. They experience first-hand how public policy is shaped and implemented at the national level. They are better prepared to become the next generation of public policy decision makers.

Founded in 1990, the mission of the Washington Internship Institute is to foster students' intellectual, personal, and professional development through individually tailored, quality internships and challenging academic coursework that take full advantage of the opportunities available in the nation's capital and reflect the best practices of experiential learning and liberal education. Each year, dozens of students from around the country and the world and in a wide variety of majors participate in uniquely suited internships, complemented by relevant and rigorous coursework.

Survey Says!

Polls are great. And awful. They tell us what people think and allow us to make connections between different data points that can elucidate and educate. They can also lead us to conclusions that are too simple and all-encompassing.

The Gallup-Purdue Index is an invaluable tool for anyone interested in better understanding and improving the connections between higher education and the world of work, among other things. From their latest data (cited in the article linked below), a lot stands out that proves the worth of internships, especially related to their worth to students after graduation:

Recent graduates (those who graduated from 2002–2016) who had a relevant job or internship while in school were more than twice as likely to acquire a good job immediately after graduation. More than four in 10 of these graduates (42%) who strongly agree they had a relevant job or internship as an undergraduate had a good job waiting for them upon graduation, compared with just 20% of those who did not strongly agree.

What I want to highlight here is the idea of a “relevant” internship (or job) resulting in gainful employment. We pride ourselves on helping students find internships suited to their interest and future pursuits. That isn’t just conscientious service to students; this polling demonstrates it is valuable. 

[S]tudents in social sciences, hard sciences and business who had a relevant job or internship are also substantially more likely to have had a good job waiting for them after graduation. Even arts and humanities majors who had these types of relevant work experiences in college are more than twice as likely to have had a good job upon graduation.

And, the data demonstrates that such professional experiences in college help students after graduation, regardless of discipline. Indeed, it may be even more important for students majoring in disciplines where internships relevant to their students might be more challenging to envision or find — like the arts and humanities. An internship for a philosophy major isn’t exactly the first thing one finds on job boards.

Across all majors, students who strongly agreed that they had a job or internship where they could apply what they were learning in the classroom are significantly more likely to be in jobs that are completely related to their undergraduate studies.

To reiterate: students who have relevant professional experience in college are finding employment in relevant fields after graduation. The old, disproved saw about the English-major-turned-barista is easier to discredit when that English major is afforded English-related internships in college that turn into English-related jobs after graduation.

Higher education, thus, needs to pay attention to this data. Across disciplines, faculty and administrators need to encourage students to find opportunities related to those disciplines; businesses and organizations need to offer those opportunities to students to provide experience for their future employees.

Writers affiliated with the Purdue-Gallup Index agree that higher education needs to pay attention to their data. Their conclusion outlined in their article, “Why Colleges Should Make Internships a Requirement,” however, is a bit more extreme than I would recommend.

I had an inkling that I would not completely agree with their argument after reading their first sentence:

The top reason students, parents and the public value higher education is to get a good job.

I have noted elsewhere how I can nearly cringe when higher education is valued solely as a transaction: college=job. To be fair, this is not exactly what these authors are positing; they are merely stating their survey data. However, by foregrounding and not interrogating this result, the authors implicitly argue that this finding is correct. And, I recognize that not wanting to see higher education’s primary purpose as job preparation is a privileged position; at the same time, much is lost when we value higher education only for that purpose.

If higher education were a constituent-responsive industry, it would take this information very seriously and rigorously measure whether graduates land in a good job — or not. 

This assertion is plainly false. Higher education is constantly criticized for being too responsive to its constituents (students, in this case). Further, I know career development professionals in higher education who take this information very seriously and would love to more “rigorously measure whether graduates land in a good job .” Unfortunately, their data often relies upon alumni surveys, and, once a student graduates, it is notoriously difficult to keep track of them or, once found, have them respond consistently to surveys. Gallup-Purdue surveyed some 11,000 college graduates; that could comprise the graduating classes for two years at some large universities. 

But the truth is, higher education institutions and accreditors are out of sync with what the public and students want most from a college degree. And nothing will improve this more than this one step: Making an internship — where students can apply what they are learning in a real-world work situation — a requirement to graduate.

To some, this assertion seems anodyne; if internships are so great, require them so every student will participate. Of course, such a simple solution belies the challenges of doing so. Imagine the infrastructure required to enable such a requirement, including the faculty support (most of which at this point is an often unacknowledged and almost always uncompensated burden on faculty workload) and administrative machinery necessary to make such a requirement actually functional. Further, where are all of these internships going to appear from? Sure, perhaps you can find 10,000 internships for University of Washington students in Seattle, but can you find 6000 internships for Washington State University students in Pullman, with a population of less than 30,000? 

By emphasizing — or even requiring — relevant jobs and internships as part of the undergraduate experience, colleges and universities set their graduates up to acquire good jobs after graduation in fields where their work is directly relevant to their undergraduate studies. And, as a result, these students recognize the value of their investment in their degree.

It is here that the authors perhaps reveal that their article title and previous policy suggestion were little more than attention-grabbing: “emphasizing — or even requiring — relevant jobs and internships.” That little parenthesis does a lot of mitigating.

I doubt there are many in career development who don’t want to emphasize relevant internship opportunities in students’ academic careers, and you see more and more colleges and universities providing better guidance and opportunities to students. 

Finally, I continue to want to push back against this notion that the poll’s findings are the correct way of looking at the value of a college degree. Just because a good job after college is the easiest measure of the value of a college degree does not mean that it is the only or best measure of that value. Using poll results to justify a completely unrealistic (and ultimately abandoned) proposal does no service to those who champion internships and their value, but instead hampers discussion between them and those in academia who do not see their value.

Higher Education, Paranoia, and Androids

(With apologies to Radiohead)

Last week, I visited Elon University to meet students, staff, and faculty. I booked my travel online, never speaking to a human being. I checked into my flight on my phone, engaging with three people on the way: the woman who made sure I wasn’t cutting past other people by being in the TSA PreCheck lane; the TSA agent who checked my idea and ticket (on my phone); and, the flight attendant who made sure I was buckled into my upright seat and had airplane mode on (don’t get me started on those who don’t follow that rule). I picked up my car, which I had booked online, and scanned my chosen car with my phone; the gate attendant waved me through. I followed navigation to my hotel, where I went straight to my room and opened the door with my phone since I had already checked in and selected my room the day before. 

Even a few years ago, I would have had to have interacted with probably twice as many people to complete my journey. Especially using my digital hotel room key, I reflected upon how few people I interacted with — and the jobs eliminated by the technology that made my journey so seamless (though a bit less human). 

Job creation is a constant topic of pundits and politicians, but increasingly more attention is being paid to the effects of automation on the job market because, in part, the future looks grim: as Jeffrey Selingo notes in this article, “nearly half of American jobs are at risk of being taken over by computers within the next two decades.” Just as we are grappling with how technology is affecting our personal lives — and putting a lie to the truism that technological advancement is progressive — we are also coming to terms with how technology is affecting our professional lives.

However, it is an open question how higher education is responding to the automation march. Because I am an English major, and at heart a proselytizer for the liberal arts, I have always found the professional majors depressing, because I just can’t get my mind around how spending four years learning accounting can be fun. The long-standing argument for these kinds of majors and against liberal arts majors has been that they better prepare you for a job. Now though, I think two arguments can be made against at least some of these majors because of technology: are they viable? and, is the knowledge gained instantly outdated? I did my taxes a few weeks ago. I didn’t need an accountant. And, with new systems, technologies, and ways of thinking changing and being created at an ever-increasing pace — as James Gleick told us — if you started school in 2017, will the knowledge you learned even be relevant in 2021 when you graduate?

In his article, Selingo relates a discussion he had with President of Northeastern University Joseph E. Aoun, who has recently authored a book on these topics. Aoun advocates for an integration of the liberal arts and the professional, something he calls “humanics.” I am not only against this neologism, but skeptical of the actual implementation of such an approach. I still believe in the value of going deeply into a subject area; I still believe in the major. I believe in gaining expertise. This approach — “the purposeful integration of technical literacies, such as coding and data analytics . . . with uniquely human literacies, such as creativity, entrepreneurship, ethics, cultural agility and the ability to work in diverse teams” — seemingly discounts the major. I also am skeptical of faculty being willing or able to do this kind of teaching; perhaps it would require the dismantling of disciplines to effect this kind of change. Also, though, I didn’t want to learn how to code or do analytics; I wanted to read books. That I got interested in web design and databases was a function of my own creativity and curiosity; I wouldn’t want to see an English degree require coding.

However, I do agree with his second recommendation, perhaps self-servingly so:

colleges need to invest in experiential education, which includes activities such as internships, undergraduate research and study abroad. “These experiences impart independence, problem-solving skills, teamwork and deepen understanding from what into why,” [Aoun said].

I couldn’t agree more. I think that last point is really the kicker here: too many professional programs focus on what (while I would argue liberal arts programs focus on why). Getting students to apply the “what” they have learned in a professional setting, in a research setting, or in a different culture expands their ability to both understand that “what” but get to deeper questions and the ability to ask those deeper questions. That ability — to recognize and then solve problems creatively and collaboratively — is uniquely human, and one that higher education needs to emphasize and foster to prepare students for the automatized future of work.

Writing to Reach You

Those of us who believe in and espouse the merits of a liberal education are often products of one. When forced to describe the composition and merits of said approach to education, though, we often fall back on squishy platitudes: “breadth and depth,” “inquiry,” “critical thinking,” “active reading” are all phrases we employ to try to describe something that we all believe in, but can’t quite put our finger on. I’m not going to engage here in an attempt to define it, but AAC&U, one of the staunchest institutional supporters of liberal education, tries here; I have quibbles, but it will do.

From my own experience as a product of a liberal education, what I valued was all of what I listed above: I took courses in a bunch of different stuff that didn’t necessarily have anything to do with my major, but I also wrote a senior thesis that went deep into one topic; I asked a lot of questions, some of which were dumb, but that’s kind of the point; and, I took a ton of notes while reading, so that I was really engaging with the material.

What I also did a ton of, though, was write. I wrote short essays, long essays, and that damn thesis (that went well over 100 pages; I had an indulgent adviser). The writing is where all of the above was brought together: it was where my thinking was made manifest, where I had to make the connections that were only in my head, and where I had to answer those questions, dumb or not. Even if the questions were dumb, the answers couldn’t be: the answers had to be rational, well-supported, and contextualized.

This article detailing a recent AAC&U study indicates that the answers part is where we seem to be falling down on the job in educating students:

Regarding critical thinking, students tended to explain issues well and present related evidence. However, the study says, students have more trouble “drawing conclusions or placing the issue in a meaningful context (i.e., making sense out of or explaining the importance of the issue studied).”

One of the questions I would always ask out of my students when I taught writing was, “So what?”. I asked this partly because I’m can be kind of a jerk, but I also asked it because I wanted to succinctly demand of students why I should care about their answers: what am I going to learn, be convinced of, changed by their writing? This is what I think I got out of a liberal education: that I can ask questions all the livelong day, but if I don’t attempt to answer them, communicate those answers(likely through writing) to others, andexplain to those others why I’m right and what that new rightness all means, then it doesn’t really matter that much.

The next piece then is to be receptive to those other people coming back and asking me (ideally not dumb) questions about my answers and starting this wonderful loop of questions and answers that begets knowledge, understanding, and insight. I also feel like we’re not very good at teaching students that next step of how to be receptive to questions. I think too often we teach writing (and by extension critical thinking) as an end to itself, rather than teaching students about that loop. The loop is the fun (and scary and sometimes ego-damaging) part, and the loop is what is great and important about education.

(Sometimes I title posts with a song lyric, which was a procrastination technique my senior year in college, where every title of an essay was a song lyric; this one is from the band Travis.)

The "Hidden Curriculum"

My first job after earning my doctorate was teaching writing at a community college. My parents met while attending a community college, so I went into the position with an inkling that I was genetically attached to community colleges and the students who attend them. 

This turned out to not be the case, in part because both of my parents went on to receive bachelor’s degrees, find good jobs, make a good amount of money — enough to eventually send their son to a very good small liberal arts college without any concerns about finances. In other words, I was pretty disconnected from the students I was teaching — and the versions of my parents 35 years earlier. 

I remember when that disconnect was brought home for me. I was meeting with a student in one of my classes who was failing the class because of missed classes and missed assignments: there was no way that he was going to pass the class, even with it only being six weeks into the semester. When I met with him, I suggested that he withdraw from the class to save his GPA from being dragged down by the F he would eventually receive. He looked at me with a blank look that told me he had no idea what I was talking about. I then proceeded to go through the ramifications of withdrawal and the process — down to writing out directions to the Registrar’s office and every step thereafter.

I realized then that my parents’ path had allowed them to pick up nuggets of information along the way about how to “do” college — that they eventually conveyed to me. I didn’t have a class that told me what a Registrar’s function was, what “withdrawal” meant, how my GPA was calculated; these and other nuggets wormed their way into me throughout my childhood — perhaps on the drive down to the University of Washington with my mom when she attended a night class while completing her degree, or in the car with my dad when he told me the story about how he got kicked out of his first college.

I haven’t really had a term to label these pieces of information about how to “do” college, but while reading a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education on access to experiential learning opportunities, I came across a perfect label, expressed by a professor at Cal State Fullerton: 

Internships, study abroad, and research are part of what he calls a “hidden curriculum,” one his students often don’t know how to navigate. “No one tells you that you should have an internship, that you should study abroad,” he says.

There are whole swathes of information that aren’t taught by colleges that enrich a student’s experience in college. The reasons for not communicating this “hidden curriculum” are numerous, but I think it is important for colleges to be more intentional about exposing this curriculum for all students.

---

I don’t want to leave this article without discussing its main point about the importance of providing not just access but equal access to experiential learning opportunities like the one our organization provides, and this gets us back to intentionality: as the professor above implies, colleges cannot just simply offer these opportunities, but must promote them and explain them to students who may not understand at first glance their importance and value.

One of the benefits of taking this position has been witnessing the enormous growth in all of the students who have participated in the program, but particularly those students who are first-generation college students. One of our long-term goals is to provide more opportunities and expand access to our program while still maintaining the quality of the program.

In this article, she isn’t talking about our program, but one of our board members could be: 

there doesn’t have to be a trade-off between scale and quality, says Jillian Kinzie, associate director of the National Survey of Student Engagement Institute, at Indiana University at Bloomington.

She goes on to say that 

Colleges are best served when they offer opportunities that align with the ethos of their campuses, she says. Buy-in from faculty members and administrators is greater when proposals conform to the institution’s mission, and it can lessen the lift needed to get students involved. . . . [C]olleges should focus on equity of access and the quality of the activities they do offer.

One of my goals has been to broaden our base of partner colleges, and I have sought to do that with institutions whose missions suit our program. One of the reasons why our partnership with the New American Colleges and Universities has been so promising and appropriate is because these institutions’ missions explicitly connect liberal education with professional preparation — just as ours does. As Dr. Kinzie notes, when mission and program are aligned well, opportunities for students are easier to create, promote, and integrate — making it that much easier for all students to participate and benefit.

The Pressure to Measure Success

This week, our students start the first week of their internships, bookended by two civic events: the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the inauguration of our forty-fifth President. It is an interesting juxtaposition because of just how far our culture has extricated professional success from one’s success as a citizen or member of a community.

That statement is perhaps overblown, but an article from last year has remained in my thoughts months later. Titled “Living in an Extreme Meritocracy is Exhausting,” the article outlines how employees’ performance is increasingly ruled by algorithms, impersonal metrics, and an expectation of perfection. The author outlines how it wasn’t always this way, but that technology, the diminished role of unions, and other factors have created a professional culture that is potentially damaging for both employers and employees — and for our culture and democracy:

When society fetishizes measurement and idolizes individual merit at the expense of other things, however, it reinforces a go-it-alone mentality that is ultimately harmful to . . . egalitarian ideals.

Among the “other things” that are sacrificed in this obsession with individual employee performance is an in-depth analysis of whether the employee is set up for success by the organization itself: is it providing the tools, resources, and environment that allows the employee to succeed? 

By “reinforc[ing] a go-it-alone mentality,” this approach not only diminishes other professional skills (like the ability to work as part of a team) that employers say they want in employees, but it also makes individuals their worst critic. Further, it starts early; a dean at Northwestern University discusses how, when he asks students “who their most critical voice is, their answer is almost always ‘myself.’” I think this current approach to evaluation is felt by students early on and reinforces students’ fear of failure that he discusses. 

In our orientation last week, I emphasized to our students that they need to remember that their internships are learning experiences: that their hosts expect them to make mistakes, because through mistakes we learn how to improve. In many ways, I wish we could bring some of that approach into the corporate world: I feel like the ideal of perfection they inculcate needs to be tempered with the ideal of trial-and-error for the health of both employees and employers.

Returning to my earlier proposition, I think this approach to employee evaluation ultimately harms civil society: if it is constantly reinforced that we are only successful based on what we do individually, then success as a community — a success that can be messy and compromised, but also ultimately more far-reaching and egalitarian — is regarded as less valuable. It is almost as if we are inverting our nation’s motto of e pluribus unum: rather than out of many, one, we emphasize many, many ones.

In some ways, it is hard for us to go back: we cannot suddenly throw away our phones and robots, for example. However, we can try harder as employees and employers to not make the financial bottom line the only metric we use for success.

Making Language Messy

One of the topics we focus on during our orientation for students is communication: not just tips about workplace communication, but about actual, face-to-face communication, the kind of communication we are increasingly kept from as we bury our noses in our phones and earbuds into our ears.

When we discuss discussion, conversation, and communication, we talk about the fear that I think many of us have of actually engaging in conversation because it can be messy: unlike a text message, we can't edit it and we can't just stop it. We have to respond (out loud or through body language), and we have to sometimes clarify what we mean.

I think that we aren't very good at that anymore because often our conversations--in person or online--tend to happen in private: our texts, our tweets, our Facebook messages, our Snapchats are often to people who know us, who know what we mean, even before we say what we want to say. It makes us a bit lazy, really: it keeps us from having to explain ourselves because our audience already knows us.

In the context of this year's election and some recent goings-on at universities, writer Nathan Heller put forward a call that I wholeheartedly agree with:

I’ve increasingly found myself a supporter of messy public process: the legislation pushed through government slowly, in curtailed form; the interminable, fruitless-seeming town-hall meeting; many of the government’s lumbering, error-prone efforts at regulation. These processes are cumbersome, often wasteful, and inevitably infuriating. But at their best they have the virtue of occurring in a common arena, the place where all parts of a population meet. They force us, if we hope to get anything done, to translate our values and thoughts into language that communicates broadly. The more I observe, the warier I grow of privatized efficiency: in time, it indulges clannish thought. Let’s drive our language out of private circles, back toward the public sphere.

This kind of public talk forces us to build bridges, to explain ourselves, to clarify thought, and to teach. What I mean by that goes back to that old adage about not really knowing something until you teach it; when you have to teach something to someone else--translating that topic into something easily understandable to another who may have no experience with that topic--it forces you to be clear, comprehensible, and balanced. Let's teach each other to talk again, and drag our private, closed, and insular conversations into the light of the public square. As Heller notes, our founders relied upon this kind of discourse and saw it as a bedrock of our democracy; I also think it's fundamental to us as students, workers, teachers, and human beings.

Seeing College as Job Training

I have written about the liberal arts, about majors, and about preparing for a career on several occasions. And yet, I feel compelled once again to write about it--this time spurred by a recent article in the Washington Post by Steven Pearlstein perhaps provocatively titled, "Meet the Parents Who Won't Let Their Children Study Literature."

We don't actually hear from the parents in this article all that much, though the article does discuss the role parents increasingly play in the academic careers of students. This development is the opposite of what my experience as a student was. Both of my parents earned college degrees after starting at a community college (where they met), but they were not involved in my choice of major. I don't think they didn't care; I think it was more that they thought it wasn't their place to tell me what to do. Though their education was very different from mine (local community college to flagship state school versus small liberal arts college), I think they thought that since it was my education, that I should be the one deciding it--for better or worse.

I think it turned out better of course, but I'm sure they fretted no small amount when I told them I was going to be an English major and did not want to be a K-12 teacher. Thus, I understand at an abstract level the concerns parents of students I meet have when their children are deciding what to pursue.

That being said, I wholeheartedly agree with the author's point here:

This focus on college as job training reflects not only a misreading of the data on jobs and pay, but also a fundamental misunderstanding of the way labor markets work, the way careers develop and the purpose of higher education.

I feel like I am beating a dead horse here at times, but I think these are crucial points. First, he is right to point out that the reports of underpay and underemployment for majors outside of pre-professional programs are overblown.

Second, training for a specific job with specific skill sets in this economy is short-sighted at best and irresponsible at worst. I like to tell students about a friend of mine who is an internal social media manager for a major pharmaceutical company: that job didn't exist even five years ago (and there certainly wasn't a major for it). We have no idea what jobs will exist five years from now, let alone twenty-five years from now. To spend one's college career taking classes that teach skills that will be obsolete in five years rather than skills like writing, reading, and thinking that will always be useful seems like a missed opportunity.

And also a little sad. At no other time will students have the freedom to explore ways of thinking and subjects like they have in college. They have the chance to grow and change and even fail. And those are the best things to learn in college: who you are, what you like, and how to deal with failure. 

Yes, my job is to provide students with opportunities to further their professional growth--to expose them to the "real world" of work. However, I always keep in the forefront that this is a learning experience, not job training. I want them to gain some job skills, but more so develop the lifelong skills of critical thinking, writing, perseverance, and independence. I want students in our program to explore their career options, but also our nation's capital, their assumptions, and who they are. 

Reading Matters

As I have likely said before, I was an English major and went on to get my Ph.D. in English. Among the things that tells you, I have read a lot. A LOT. For most of grad school, that reading consisted of novels. To be honest, I'm not a big fan of poetry: I think I need stories and characters to keep me interested. 

After graduate school, I taught for a bit, so my reading often consisted of reading student papers. Once I didn't teach as much, my interests turned toward nonfiction and reading generally in higher education issues. At this point, the rise of blogs and tweets and podcasts and other mobile pieces came about, and my interest turned to those media. 

This New Year's Day though, I resolved to return to my first love, as it were: novels. I resolved to read more in general, but to read more novels specifically. I got myself a Kindle and started to read more before going to sleep, something I really hadn't done since I was a child.

I am sleeping better, but also loving returning to the novel. I feel my brain being more restful and engaged in other pursuits. I also, as strangely as this sounds, feel a bit more engaged with the people around me. It turns out, this isn't just me; as this author states, what you read matters in terms of what it does to your brain. 

Much of what I read on a daily basis is what she terms "light reading": not very deep emotionally, but also simple in terms of syntax and vocabulary. That kind of reading doesn't exercise our brains as much as deep reading--like poetry (what I still will likely avoid) and literary fiction. Deep reading not only helps us write and think better, but it also likely makes us better people, as "reading literary fiction led to better performance on tests of affective theory of mind (understanding others’ emotions) and cognitive theory of mind (understanding others’ thinking and state of being) compared with reading nonfiction, popular fiction, or nothing at all."

So, I would encourage you to take a bit of time away from your tweets, blogs, snapchats, and everything like them, and pick up a good novel. If you need any recommendations, just let me know.

10,000 Pieces of Grit

I am pretty skeptical of any overarching schema that the authors of which tell you will revolutionize your life and automatically lead to success. Thus, I have not read Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, which outlines his 10,000 hours=mastery theory, nor Angela Duckworth's recent book Grit, which is seemingly all the rage. The latter details how "passion and perseverance" are the main determiners of success, not necessarily intelligence or aptitude (again, I haven't read it, so that might be a gross oversimplification).

It's not that I don't believe that 10,000 hours of work can lead to success or that you have to persevere to succeed: those both seem entirely plausible. What I stumble over is the presumption that this is the one thing that will lead to success. And, it turns out I'm not alone in my stumbling: as Jeffrey Selingo outlines here, researchers who have dug a little deeper have concluded that there are multiple paths to success. As Selingo points out, that's not very reassuring to students, families, and educators: we want the one thing that we can apply to everyone that will guarantee success.

On its face, though, that's just ridiculous. In education, we value diversity--of opinion, of background, of perspective. To assume that one approach will suit every student is antithetical to our ideals.

Much more logical, it seems to me, is to provide many avenues of opportunity for students to find their own approaches and paths to success--with the understanding and teaching of those students that those paths might be dead ends. As one of the researchers notes,

what we found is that they started down one path because they thought that was what they were supposed to do, and then at some point they realized that they didn’t like that path at all. 

Choosing one path and sticking with it no matter what (which I sort of addressed in my previous post) is the definition of insanity. It's understandable though because we want to avoid disappointment, failure, and wasting time. However, not one person who deems themselves successful can honestly say that they haven't taken a few detours along the way.

Head Versus Heart

When students talk to me about what they are majoring in, I often suggest to them that they should major in what they love--what they find most interesting, what energizes them. Admittedly, this advice is based pretty heavily from my own experience. I entered college as an International Relations major, but after taking a horrific History class and discovering I would have to take Economics (which I regret not doing in hindsight), I was on the lookout for other options. My first semester, I took a class called "The Art of Writing" and was hooked: I'd be an English major. It wasn't just that I liked reading, talking about writing, or accumulating books; I was also pretty good at all three.

What Brianna Wiest says in this blog post might contradict me, or at least temper my statements. Her argument is that we can't just pursue what we love to do because passion and desire only get you so far; as she says, a passionate but ineffective pre-med student is not going to become a doctor you want operating on you. 

And, we see this sometimes in students applying to our program: they have ideas of what they want to do based on experiences from their networks or from media, and they want to pursue them--regardless of whether they are well-suited toward that field. It's a difficult conundrum to face: whether to continue to follow your heart or to follow your head. 

When the choice is presented like that, it seems that only one path leads to joy while the other leads to drudgery. However, I really liked how she reframed the discussion in her post: 

The real joy of daily work is in what we have to give. We are not fulfilled by what we can seek to please us, but what we can build and offer. It is not fame, or money, or recognition that makes for a thoroughly meaningful life, it is how we put our gifts to use. It is how we give.

Pursuing our passions is certainly a worthwhile exercise: doing so refines who we are and what we know. However, pursuing our passions without understanding that we may not actually be good at those things has to result in a series of disappointments and frustrations. 

By no means would I dissuade students from pursuing majors that they love because I think there is still a correlation between academic success and engagement (i.e., I think you'll do better at something you like versus something you hate). However, I may also temper that advice with the suggestion that, just as much as they follow their bliss, they should also follow their skills.

Together Alone

Last year I read Sherry Turkle's Reclaiming Conversation, and I've been preaching its findings ever since. This article in my former hometown newspaper spurred me to take some time to blog a bit about it. It is also timely because I spend a fair amount of time with our students during orientation talking about some of its contents, and our students arrive in two weeks!

Turkle covers a lot in this book, but basically it comes down to the negative effects technology has on our ability to converse with each other--and the effects that has in the workplace, in our relationships, and in the classroom.

One of the moments that struck me was when she introduced this paradox of modern life:

When we are apart: hypervigilance. When we are together: inattention.

This articulation of what I see all around me really hit me. What she so pithily describes is how, when we are apart from friends, family, and work, we are hypervigilant about remaining virtually connected: we are constantly checking email, Facebook, texts, Twitter, Instagram so that we are connected to those people who are not actually physically next to us. Thus, when we are actually with other people in person, we are completely inattentive. I cannot tell you how many times I see couples in restaurants checking their phones instead of talking to one another.

I know that after reading this book, I have tried to keep my phone in my pocket when I'm with friends or in meetings, because Turkle cites a study that found that the quality of conversations suffer when a phone is even physically present--not just when people check it.

I could go on, but I'd encourage you to think about how you act with those around you and what impact that has on your relationships: if you get annoyed when people check their phone around you, imagine how they feel when you do it.

PS: the title of my post is stolen from a song from one of my favorite bands.

Credits, Costs, and Internships

Over the weekend, the Washington Post published an article on the question of "Should Colleges Charge for Academic Credit for Unpaid Internships?", and Inside Higher Ed published today an article covering the same topic in which I am quoted. I wanted to flesh out some of the issues raised in both articles, and provide some thoughts that weren't included in the IHE article (I know, the article wasn't about me, so I'm not offended every little thing I said wasn't included).

First, in the IHE article, I am quoted saying that I don't know of any colleges who don't charge tuition to receive credit. This is placed in the context of internships, but what I also want to point out is that this is the case for anything: I don't know of any college that awards credit for free. Some of what I read in these two articles seemed to try to say that internships are cheaper for institutions: that institutions do not actually provide the internships--internship hosts do--and are thus of no cost to the institution. Tuition does not just pay for a faculty member's salary, but for everything at an institution (there may be arguments to be made about how an institution decides to spend a student's tuition, but that's a far larger and more complex discussion). Thus, to say that internships are cheaper than regular classes is something of a red herring and leads us down a dark road, where students would pay less for a 200-student lecture class than a 15-student seminar. I don't think we want to have that or similar pricing models (English classes are cheaper because they don't use resources like Biology classes?). 

Second, what I constantly try to emphasize is that internships are learning experiences. Here is my slightly inelegant quote, 

If you see this as work that is strictly to gain professional experience so you can get a job, I think the best kind of internships are not like that.

(I may have said that, but I hope you don't think I would actually write like that.)

What I was trying to say, is that I can understand student frustration at the idea of paying for credits for "work"--which was a word I saw repeatedly in both articles. However, an internship should not be "work," but a learning experience that connects to the rest of the academic career, that encourages putting theory into practice, and that produces learning outcomes both academic and personal. I think some of the debate here is predicated on viewing internships as not valid learning experiences like a class or research; I obviously disagree with that view.

Institutions play a large role in ensuring that students receive the kind of learning experience I described through their internships by providing support before, during, and after the internship experience--and that support costs money. Certainly, there are issues to be resolved about accessibility to quality internships for all students, and we work hard with our institutional partners to make our program as affordable as possible. However, I think students who participate in our program and other internships where learning is thoroughly emphasized and supported find the experience valuable academically, personally, and professionally--and worth the cost of tuition. 

Skills Gaps, Soft Skills, and the Promise of Potential

As I am now the age of my parents were when I was in college, I find that anytime I start to talk about students in college today, I sound like an old person: “kids these days,” “in my day,” and other indicators of massive generational difference and bias start to creep into my speech.

When I came across this article about a “skills gap,” I expected to find someone also using the same sort of parlance. However, her assertion--that students lack “soft skills” like discipline, punctuality, and other markers of the loosely defined concept of “strong work ethic”--is backed up by data: employers find a significant gap between an employee’s skill level and their performance.

Let me say first that I am not the arbiter of what constitutes a strong work ethic, nor an exemplar: I basically spent the first year working on my dissertation watching lots of game shows. I did learn from that experience though, thanks to a wake-up call from my adviser and a more alert sense of my own pride.

However, there is something more than pride at stake here. And there is something more here than the author’s assertion (with which I largely agree) that faculty do a disservice by giving students leeway, free reign, or second chances. When there is a gap between what students can do and how they actually perform, not only are employers losing out, but so too are students; there is nothing worse to me than students not realizing their potential. Our new tagline--”Capitalize on Your Potential”--is not a mere play on words, but a call for students to take their potential and run with it. If what holds them back is a lack of discipline, responsibility, or “sticktoitiveness,” then I agree that we have a responsibility to teach that to them.

Those teachable moments can of course take place in the classroom, as the author advocates; however, I would (perhaps with little astonishment to you) also argue that those teachable moments about these soft skills can happen far more effectively in the workplace through an internship. Being late to class and being marked absent is one thing; being late to your internship and missing a presentation or failing to complete a task has far greater ramifications--and impact on students.

Often, I think we (rightly) focus on the professional skills students gain through internships, but I think perhaps the most important skill students learn is being professional. In my travels last week, I met with two recent alumni who both told me that they were changed by participating in the program. Yes, they gained professional skills, made new friends, and expanded their network; however, they both stressed that they changed personally: they became more responsible, more intolerant of slacking, more mature. I just know that, by gaining these “soft skills,” these students will be more productive and more content.

English Majors Can't Get Jobs, and Other Fallacies

Earlier this month, the Modern Language Association held their annual convention. The MLA is to English and Foreign Language professors, as the American Medical Association is to doctors. I have fond and harrowing memories of attending the MLA convention, as it's where English grad students go to hear from the stars in the field, but also where aspiring English professors go to interview. It's kind of a huge mess.

Anyway, one of the topics discussed at this year's convention was "selling the English major." I went into college as an International Relations major. I soon changed to English major because, in my first semester, I took a really difficult history class, found out I had to take Economics to be an IR major (and I didn't want to, which was a mistake in retrospect), and took an English class that was revelatory: it was fun, made me improve my writing quickly and markedly, and introduced me to writers whom I continue to this day to revere and return to, like Virginia Woolf and D.H. Lawrence. 

When I became an English major, I didn't really think about what I would "do" with it: I just knew I liked reading and was good at writing about what I read. I know now that I was perhaps being foolish (or at least not forward-thinking) and benefited from the luxury of  having my college paid for by my parents, and thus not having to pay back student loans as soon as I graduated.

However, from my previous work with students and talking to students now, I do wish more students would consider a bit more how much they actually like their major, and not just how much they think they will earn from it. First, as one MLA attendee mentioned, "students who love their majors are more likely to succeed": if you hate what you're doing, you're not going to do well at it. Second, certainly some majors will go on to make more than other majors, but just having a degree will likely ensure you will make a good living; one enormous misconception students have is that employers care a lot about what you major in: they typically don't.

Regarding specifically the English major (and, really, other traditional liberal arts majors), it gives you three skills that will help you in any workplace. The first is the ability to communicate well, especially in writing. Every employer wants that. The second is the ability to think critically, which will put you in good stead for a future where jobs we can't even imagine will exist; a friend of mine is an "internal social media manager" for a major pharmaceutical firm--that job didn't exist three years ago. One professor

spoke of the need to constantly be talking with students and parents about the many paths for English majors. She said that means not only the student who goes on to become a published poet or to earn an M.F.A. (although she talks about them, too). It also means the insurance agent and real estate agent who use critical reading and thoughtful writing in their jobs. 

Finally, an English major will make you a better person; or, at least "research shows that those who read literature have more empathy for fellow humans than those who don't read." Will that show up in the statistics for highest salaries? No, but it will show up in the quality of life you will have, which has to be considered.

I'm really not saying that everyone should become an English major (though many more should!): what I am saying is that your choice of major is less important than doing well in school, learning about who you are and what you want to do, and gaining experience to show future employers that you are ready (and willing) to work hard. A certain major is not going to get you a job, just as an English major will not make it hard for you to get one.

As Virginia Woolf says, "Growing up is losing some illusions, in order to acquire others."