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Learn about Internships & Experiential Learning at HACC!
https://youtu.be/UtNoJiFK29M
[Video opens with HACC logo on screen.]
KATHLEEN DORMER CARUSONE VOICEOVER:
Welcome to HACC, Central PA’s Community College. This video is brought to you today by me
Kathleen Dormer Carusone in the career development services unit here at the College.
[The screen switches to a slide with text at the top and photos in the middle. The text reads,
“Kathleen Dormer Carusone, J.D. Internship and Experiential Learning Opportunities Coordinator.”
The prominent photo is of Ms. Carusone.]
VO:
And I am the internships and experiential learning opportunities coordinator here in the
career development services unit at the College. Today I would like to talk to you about experiential
learning opportunities.
[The slide switches to a page with headline text at the top that reads, “What is an Experiential
Learning Opportunity?” In the center is a photo of a student at a computer and text that reads, “An
Experiential Learning Opportunity (ELOP) provides a student with a practical learn by-doing
experience outside of a classroom setting for a given period of time (usually a semester.)]
VO:
As a student, you can experience an experiential learning opportunity during your educational journey
here at HACC. This is an outside of the classroom opportunity in a real-world setting. It could be in
an office, could be a facility, an institution, an assembly line, a plant - depends on your program and
depends on the opportunity that you chose. It’s for a certain set period of time, often it can be a
semester – if its an internship, a practicum, a co-op or field experience. Sometimes it’s a shorter
period of time depending on the type of experiential learning opportunity that you choose. So, you get
to apply the skills that you learned during your coursework, in your classrooms and your labs to this
real-world experience.
[The slide switches to a page with headline text at the top that reads, “Types of Experiential Learning
Opportunities (ELOPs).” In the center is chart with 12 boxes. The boxes read, “Informational
Interviews,” “Job Shadowing,” “Mock Interviews,” “Career Mentoring Network,” “Tours,” “Service
Learning,” “Volunteering,” “Studio Performances,” “Research Projects,” “Internships,” “Practicums,”
and “Co-ops.”
VO:
So, what are the types of experiential learning opportunities that you can engage in while you are
here at HACC. You have several to choose from while you’re here. There are informational
interviews, where you become the interviewer of the career professional. So that way you can ask
questions that will allow you to determine whether or not you believe this will be the correct career
choice for you. You may also participate in a job shadowing experience where you are now with that
career professional side by side at their site observing the experiences that a person in that position
and industry or field will have, perhaps on a daily basis. What will they do? What are their job
responsibilities and duties? These experiences can be for several hours, half a day, a full day, or
depending on the program and the site, a multiple day experience. There’s also HACC’s Career
Mentoring Network which you will find on College Central Network, HACC's career services platform.
Here you will be able to search for a mentor. We strongly encourage you to do so because this
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person is a professional with tremendous amounts of experience, who can guide you not only on
your educational journey while you’re here at HACC, but also on your career path as you exit
HACC and enter into that new industry or trade or career that you have chosen. College
Central Network will also provide you with a variety of resources and tools in career services both
related to HACC and in general. There are tours both in-person and virtually that you will be able to
take while you’re here at HACC – depends on the semester and depends on the opportunity. There
are service learning projects such as the Special Olympics - a variety of programs I’m going to give
you as an example education and human services, but it could be for anyone here at the College that
is studying that might like to participate in the Special Olympics. Typically it’s as a volunteer, but it’s
often considered a service learning project. Sometimes it’s related to a course or an assignment. You
may be a marketing student who wants to assist with their marketing campaign. You can be a human
services student or an education student who wants to be a buddy for one of the participants
throughout the day. You then get to present your project to your peers and/or a faculty and staff panel
about your experience. There are volunteer opportunities with a variety of organizations, non-profits
and missions. There are studio performances. This is typically for students here at HACC that are in
the performing arts, the visual arts, and the music business industry such as students who are
interested in or have chosen the recording arts. Now they have the opportunity to not only do an
Informational Interview, but get into a recording studio with a recording arts professional and find out
how that career path will work for them. There are research projects from again a variety of
organizations and missions who are looking for students to do a variety of different types of research.
And, of course, there are always internships, practicums, co-ops and field experiences as types of
experiential learning opportunities here at HACC.
[The slide switches to a page with headline text at the top that reads, “Services I can provide for you:”
In the center is chart with four lines reading, “Assistnace with all types of ELOPs,” “Individual Student
Appointments,” “Workshops/Internship Week/Internship Fairs,” and “Program based events: STEM
Fest.”]
VO:
How I may be of service to you while you’re here as the internships and experiential
learning opportunities coordinator is that I can assist you with all these different types of ELOPs
during individual student appointments if you’d like to meet with me; during workshops that I will host,
and will have outside external partners hosting as well. During Internship Week when workshops can
occur and other events may happen. Internship Week is typically going to be in the fall - the third
week in September - and in the Spring semesters the third week in February and Internship Fairs in
the fall will be the last week in September and the last week in February for the spring semester.
There are program-based events such as STEM Fest which we just had last spring. And this is for
students interested in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math programs whether or not they’ve
already declared their major or they have yet to declare their major. Simply for students who are
interested in being inspired, having some fun, checking out demonstrations in these industries that
are trendy with very interesting topics; so, that way you can network and find out more information. In
addition, there will be other events that are yet to come. So, stay tuned…
[The slide switches to a page with headline text at the top that reads, “Why should you engage in an
ELOP?” There is a chart with 11 bullets reading, “Test drive career choice,” “Experience/build
resume,” “Enhance the opportunity to hire entry-level candidates,” “Increase the changes for a better
salary,” “Earn college credit,” “Paid v. Unpaid,” “Develop skills (strengths & weaknesses), “Gain
valuable understanding of major & coursework prep,” “Build confidence,” “Motivate, establish &
strengthen work habits,” and “Network.” A line at the bottom reads, “An ELOp provides the chance to
make a student more employable.”]
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VO:
And find out why you should engage in an experiential learning opportunity. This is the time for you
to figure out if this is the right career path for you. Engaging in these experiences will allow you to do
that. It will also allow you to figure out, ‘Why am I learning all this information and doing all this
coursework in these courses?’ - to develop your strengths - continue to develop your weaknesses.
As your gaining this experience and now figuring out as one student, there have been several, but
this one in particular realized, ‘Oh this is why the faculty have chosen to teach me in this way and
give me these assignments because now I’m out here in the field; and, I totally understand and am
better prepared to do the assignments that they give me while I’m on my internship.” It allows you to
build your confidence and take whatever work habits you previously developed -- you can better
develop those and gain new work habits. It motivates you to really want to do these things because
you are ultimately preparing and allowing yourself to become more employable by doing an
experiential learning opportunity or doing several experiential learning opportunities while you’re here
at HACC. You build your resume; you put your experiences on there. This will also allow you to
enhance the opportunity to be hired as an entry-level candidate. In a national study, 95%
of employers are more likely to hire students who have not only done experiential
learning opportunities but those students who have done internships, practicums, co-ops, and
field experiences. These experiences also hopefully allow you to have the chance for an
increased hourly wage or an increased annual salary. While you’re here at HACC some of
these experiences can also be credit-based experiences; so, you can earn college credit while
doing the experiential learning opportunity. Some may be paid, some may be unpaid it really depends
on the experience that you choose and what you’re doing and, importantly it allows to build your
network of people that you will get to know and come to know in your chosen field. After all an
experiential learning opportunity provides you the chance to become more employable!
[The slide switches to a page with headline text at the top that reads, “HACAC’s Career Development
Services webpages.” The center is a screenshot of the webpage.”
VO:
To conclude, I’d like to show you HACC’s Career Development Services webpages, minus myself on
the video, so that way you can see the information for the website. Welcome to HACC’s career
services webpages so that you can explore, discover, and connect with a career path that is right for
you. At HACC.edu/students/careerservices, you will find a variety of pages to help you find contact
information for my colleagues in career education, or myself and for my colleagues in
employer partnerships. There’s a resource page so that you can check out information in exploring
career options and identifying college majors… taking a look at resources for experiential learning
opportunities and Internships as well as resource information for employment services. There’s also a
page for handouts, guides and videos. There’s a FAQs, frequently asked questions page for various
topics in career education, experiential learning and employer services with summaries of those
topics and contact information for the folks who can provide more information on these topics for you.
As well, there’s an employer services page for both students and employers and external
partners about the different types of employer services that are offered here at HACC.
[The slide switches to a page with headline text at the top that reads, “Career Development Services
Unit.” The center has text that reads, “Kathleen Dormer Carusone, coordinator of internships
VO:
Thank you for taking the time to view this video, to learn about myself, Kathleen Dormer
Carusone, the coordinator of internships and experiential learning opportunities here in the career
development services unit. And more importantly, to learn about all the services that I can offer you
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regarding experiential learning and internships, in addition to briefly learning about my colleagues in
career education who can help you explore your career options and also my colleagues in employer
partnerships who can help you network and find potential employers so you can ultimately gain that
first job when you finish your program and studies here at HACC! More importantly we are here to
help you; we look forward to helping you, and we look forward to seeing you. Thank you and have a
great day!
