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Session Details

 
Building Equity-Centered Internship Programs
Description:
In today’s world of work, we recognize that in order for students to be competitive in the labor market they need to have a combination of academic, technical, transferrable, and life skills. One of the best ways for students to acquire these is through the integration of work-based learning, which is an educational strategy that uses the workplace to provide students with the knowledge and skills needed to connect school experiences to real-life work activities. One of the most popular forms of work-based learning is the internship. Internships are considered a high-impact practice and have shown to help students become more competitive as they enter and advance in their careers. Amongst the many benefits, we know students who have completed an internship are more likely to receive job interview offers, experience lower unemployment rates, achieve higher wages, and reach increased levels of school engagement. As a result, students who have completed an internship also gain access to opportunities that lead to social and economic mobility. However, data around this topic consistently show significant disparities in terms of race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, educational attainment, and many more intersecting identities. Additionally, there are many other obstacles that keep students from pursuing internships, such as financial need, lack of awareness, external responsibilities, transportation, and legal status. Jacqueline Javier and Isabel Ochoa have worked together to evaluate internship programs offered at Pasadena City College in partnership with local employers. Through their research, they have identified equity gaps that prevent historically marginalized students from gaining access to opportunities that serve as a gateway to career entry or advancement. Equity gaps include: 1) skills gap; 2) opportunity gap; 3) information gap; 4) belief gap; 5) and network gap. The purpose of this session is to raise awareness of how employers can build a diverse talent pipeline through intentional collaboration with career services professionals. In this session, we will accomplish this by facilitating a self-discovery activity that will help participants understand implicit bias and assumptions related to marginalized student groups. Data will be shared with the participants to reinforce the concepts being presented and will serve as a foundation for best practices in creating equitable internship programs. Participants will leave the session with applicable strategies for identifying, challenging, and disrupting inequitable practices. By keeping equity at the center of internship program development, both employers and career services professionals will feel empowered and committed to the mission of increasing diversity in the workplace.
Audience:
Career Services
Level:
Emerging
Track:
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Type:
Deep Dive
Main Speaker:
Jacqueline Javier, Pasadena City College
Additional Speakers:
Isabel Ochoa, Pasadena City College