This is one in a trio of articles that provide tried-and-tested, actionable advice for community partnerships in school. This article focuses on externship. You should also check out the other articles, on internship and service learning.
Community partnerships are born when a school or classroom connects with a local organization to provide meaningful, engaging, and relevant experiences for students that also serve the needs of the organization. Community partnerships are not simply or necessarily about jobs and careers—rather, they are characterized by relationships and learning opportunities: students engage with community members to do real, meaningful work.
Community partnerships offer both school and community stakeholders something valuable. Students gain real-life experience and develop opportunities for personal reflection that emphasize the relevance of academic learning while ensuring civic engagement that is focused on strengthening the community. Moreover, “research indicates that workplace learning enhances student achievement, preparation for college, attendance, and attitude, finding that students who participate in [community partnerships] are more likely to get better grades, stay in school, go directly to college, and approach life and work with a positive attitude” (National, 1999). Meanwhile, community partners gain an opportunity to introduce their work to students, increase student excitement about that work, observe student engagement and growth in the work, and mentor students who will potentially work in these professions upon their high school or college graduation.
The goal of any school-to-community program is for benefits to be reciprocal. Students gain experience, insight, confidence, and opportunities to reflect on their learning and work; the community partner, meanwhile, gains a valuable contributing member of their organization. One National Employer Leadership Council study shows that employer benefits include “reduced recruitment costs, reduced training and supervision, reduced turnover, increased retention rates, higher productivity of students and high productivity and promotion rates of school-to-work program graduates who eventually are hired compared with those of other newly hired workers” (National, 1999). Matthew’s junior internship experience offers an example of how this symbiotic relationship plays out. The student learned to transfer his skills from the classroom to the workplace, while the graphic design firm discovered an asset in someone who could produce real work for their clients.
In a community partnership, the community becomes an extension of the classroom. The New Urban High School: A Practitioner’s Guide explains community partnerships as experiences that “change the context for teaching and learning…situat[ing] students in the adult world of work and learning, confronting them with unpredictable situations, new perspectives that cut across subject matters, and invaluable lessons in dealing with people in the world.”
While community partnerships can take several forms, this article focuses on one in particular: externship
Externship
Externships are opportunities for students to explore career interests, gain professional experience, build relationships with community members, and cultivate their knowledge and skills in new areas. Students often engage in externships when they are seniors, and use the experience to connect with an adult member of the community. Externships can be less formal, more flexible experiences, and range from job shadowing to community service.
“Externships allow students to dive deeply into the world beyond school.”
—Larry Rosenstock, Co-founder and CEO, High Tech High
Externship is a culminating academic event that takes place during a student’s senior year. These in-depth, real-world experiences offer students opportunities to build on the skills they have acquired during school and internships. Some students choose to do an externship at the same firm at which they interned; others choose a different but related site or industry; still others decide to switch tracks and try something new altogether.
No matter how they craft the experience, externships provide students with a plethora of opportunities and the chance to:
Invest in relevant skills. For students who know what they want to study in college, externships provide an opportunity to hone a specific set of skills they are confident they will draw on in the near future.
Dive deep into an industry. Students who extern at a site where they interned can gain even more experience and dive deeper into a particular field. Externships also allow students to explore multiple faces of one industry. For example, a student who interned with an electrical engineer during a previous experience might use their externship to explore a different field of engineering.
Engage in advanced study. Students may engage in independent study or take college courses through externships, thus gaining a leg up on college applications and resumes.
Pursue interests and passions. Externships give students an opportunity to pursue something they are interested in but may not intend to study in college.
Experiment. Externships present an excellent opportunity for students to get a taste of an industry they are considering; they may find they want to go deeper. Or, just as useful, they may find they can entirely rule it out as a potential career path.
Grow a network. Through externships, students make invaluable connections with professional mentors who not only help them shape their project and overall learning, but also offer advice and assistance in making connections in the world beyond school.
Get real world work experience. Externships provide students opportunities to get a hands-on understanding of their declared college major before formally embarking on their course of study.
Ultimately, the goal of an externship is to give students real experience before they commit to a college major or career field. This is exceptionally critical because many colleges have moved or are moving away from allowing students to enter with “undecided” or “undeclared” majors. The closer students are to college, the more valuable the externship experience may be for getting day-in-the-life glimpses into a particular career or field of study.
Setting up a successful externship program requires knowing whether students (1) will create mentor-supported individual projects; (2) plan to return to their original internship placements; (3) seek new externship placements; or (4) some combination of the above.
Once these factors have been determined, it is important to consider the timeline for the experience. Keep in mind that the college application process is ongoing until at least December. It is thus a good idea to introduce the externship program at the beginning of the year and then come back to it as winter break gets closer. This gives students an opportunity to talk to potential mentors and their parents about ideas for externship over break. It also avoids overwhelming them with this task while they are focused on submitting college applications.
Consider the following timeline for rolling out an externship program:
Fall
Introduce students to the idea of externship and share the school’s expectations for the experience. Up to this point, students may have done projects or engaged in curriculum that have been largely teacher-designed and featured increasing amounts of student input. However, the externship will be their capstone project- based learning experience.
Their goal will be to design their own project with an outside mentor or co-design a project with a community partner organization.
Early January
Set time aside each week for student cohorts to work with teachers to identify where externships will take place and what the experience will look like for the student. Provide students with a list of externship requirements, frequently asked questions about project specs and deadlines and, where possible, a list of past internship and externship placements.
Mid-January
This is a good time for students to pitch their project ideas for approval. Pitches should cover the 7Ps—purpose, perspective, product, plan, price, place, and presentation. It is ideal for teachers, the school director, the school dean, parents, and a community mentor to be present for the pitch. During the pitch, the student identifies her project and its timeline. All adult parties must sign off on the project pitch.
The key people involved in the externship experience are the student, the teacher, and the community mentor. In planning, consider the role of each of these stakeholders before, during, and after the externship experience.
The Cadaver Lab, A Life-altering Senior Capstone“The cadaver lab helped students understand something profound. it was no longer just about a lab class; this was helping humanity.” —Marilyn Rahlf, Capital Region Academies for the Next Economy (CRANE) Twelfth grade students arrived at the Medical Laboratory Sciences building at Folsom Lake College by bus. As a group they were quite diverse, comprised of various socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds and hailing from places as far as the mountain community of Placerville to the Central Sacramento Valley communities of Galt, West Sacramento, and Orangevale. What united them was 158 their commitment to the Allied Health Pathway. Sacramento County Office of Education’s CRANE staff collaborated with Folsom Lake College’s Pre-Health Alliance Club to offer students a full “college experience.” The high school seniors met with college students in the Medical Laboratory Sciences program, learning firsthand about college classwork, extended university studies and possible careers. The experience culminated in a visit to the cadaver lab. The students entered the lab and saw an open cadaver displayed on a table. Unlike the mannequins they had studied in their courses, this was the real body of an 80-year-old female who had died of cancer. A professor walked students through “quadrants” of the cadaver, explaining the location of organs and their function in the human body. For the students, who had only learned such information from books or small animal dissections, “this was an awe-inspiring experience,” according to Marilyn Rahlf, CRANE career specialist. “To see ‘real organs’ as they fit inside the body was pretty surreal.” Students noticed there was still polish on the cadaver’s fingernails. Rahlf notes that these details made the experience compelling for students.“They stopped seeing the body as a specimen,” she said. “These were real people and that made a lasting impression on every student. They recognized that this is what medicine is all about, finding out about the person and how they died.” After the experience at the cadaver lab, students returned to their biomedical classes and continued to study human anatomy, now able to relate the material to what they had experienced. Some students who participated in the cadaver lab experience went on to intern at their local hospital. Such experiences “expose [students] to careers they may not even know about, skills they don’t know they have, and they give students a taste of reality of their potential futures,” says CRANE career specialist Brandee Brewer. Both Brewer and Rahlf believe that partnerships like the cadaver lab provide lasting impact and create valuable opportunities for students that exist long after the initial experience. “Sometimes we are planting the seeds and we don’t always hear the outcomes,” Brewer notes. “But we know we are planting the seeds, and it’s just a matter of time.” |
At HTH, externship placements are solidified before spring break. This gives the few students whose externship falls through, or who cannot find one, extra time to secure an experience. The school break also allows students to start thinking in earnest about what their project work will be and how to connect with their mentors. When considering sites, students review a list of internship placements from past experiences and then reach out to potential contacts via email or phone. Remind students that they are expected to communicate professionally with potential mentors, and let them spend class time making these connections.
As they connect with professionals, encourage students to copy teachers on email inquires. This allows the teacher to help students reach out if they get no response; it also assures potential mentors that teachers are involved in this process. Copying teachers also serves an equity purpose: For those students whose families do not have community connections that could facilitate externship opportunities, the teacher is that connection. While the goal is to have students make these connections on their own, they are still in the process of learning how to do so. As 12th grade teacher Stephanie Lytle points out, “They are all coming from different steps to start with, so we can help them with that. We aren’t doing it for them, we are just, as their teachers, helping them get started.”
Next, students prepare an overview of what they will need for a project or what ideas they have for their work. If they are returning to a site at which they interned, a project is not necessarily required, but students should at least increase their responsibilities—they should not be doing the same tasks they did during internship. This is typically possible because most seniors are 18 by this point, and many companies will let them take on more responsibility. A good example of this comes from Chase, a senior at High Tech High International. For externship, Chase returned to the solar panel company where he had interned as a junior, where his experience consisted of creating visuals and web materials. He learned the ins and outs of the business, but got very little hands-on experience with solar panel installation and design. When he returned for externship, however, he worked with clients to create Google Sketchup designs of solar panel installations and was even part of the team that physically installed them.
Regardless of whether they have a new placement or are returning to a familiar site, all students undergo the design thinking process for an independent project. This allows them to think about how they could put their skills to work and who they could connect with in the community. They are encouraged to “dream big” as they work to make their project ideas reality.
Students typically complete their externship Monday to Friday for about 30 hours each week. This schedule can be adjusted depending on the organization’s needs or operating hours.
Students can successfully document their experience by posting on social media, blogs, or video journals. Some teachers expect students to post daily; others set specific post quotas (such as posting at least three times per week, or making a post every Tuesday and Thursday).
These posts may have specific requirements, such as being a certain length or including a picture or video, or perhaps responding to a prompt. Students also typically help facilitate site visits for their teacher, who usually makes two to three visits per student at times when the mentor is also available.
Upon return from externship, all students present their learning to a cohort that may include teachers, students, mentors, school administrators, advisors, and parents. Finally, students send a handwritten note thanking their site mentor and anyone else who helped them accomplish their externship goals.
Many teachers launch externship by devoting a period a week to identifying externship goals and plans with students. One way to do this is to divide students into cohorts of about 20 by course or “profession.” Re-imagine the schedule to carve out 30 to 60 minutes of the day (once a week or more) where, instead of attending core classes, students spend time with a faculty cohort leader. Students interested in externships that are focused on the arts and humanities would spend one hour of their day with their “cohort leader,” one of the art or humanities teachers on campus; students interested in engineering could spend that hour with a physics or engineering teacher; and those students interested in biomedical sciences could spend that hour with a biology or chemistry teacher.
Successful externships are marked by significant teacher involvement. Teachers visit all externship sites within the first week to ensure that students and mentors are starting the experience well. After that, some teachers find it useful to maintain a “teacher blog,” where they showcase their students’ experiences. They might document the highlights of the externships and/or post examples of work they see students engaged in when they conduct site visits. Teachers also use this space to share examples of high quality student blog posts, so other students have models. This highlights what students are doing and keeps them connected to and motivated by their peers’ activities. Other teachers in the school may also find it useful to consult the blog so they can keep up with what students in their advisory or homeroom are doing.
Teachers visit each student two to three times over the course of the externship. These visits are useful for helping students maintain good relationships with their mentors. Mentors especially appreciate these visits if they need encouragement, support, or ideas for how to work with students and/or give them more responsibility. Teachers can help students take professional-looking pictures of themselves at externship and help them think of ways to write about their experiences. In general, teachers are accessible and available to students for the duration of the externship.
At the conclusion of the experience, teachers work with students to create a schedule for their externship presentation (ePOL). This involves pulling together student work samples, including their reflective pieces, and serves as a graduation portfolio that highlights their best work. Grant time for students to create their ePOL.
It is good practice for teachers to send mentors a digital survey to find out how the externship experience could be improved and if they would consider having an extern (or intern) another year; if so, be sure to add them to a database of possible future mentors. Finally, thank each mentor in writing for taking time to work with students. Writing such a note serves two purposes: it shows appreciation to the mentor for facilitating the externship experience and also maintains a relationship for future externships or project work.
Successful externships are marked by significant mentor involvement.
Returning mentors who are already familiar with the program may have little to do to prepare for the externship, other than ensure the project is coherent and the workplace is ready for a high school student’s presence. For new mentors, HTH teachers typically hold a site visit to observe the working space and answer any mentor questions. Students are typically present for this visit. Returning and new mentors are asked to discuss how students will spend their time; teachers can help with this process by reaching out via email or phone in advance.
At HTH, mentors (new and returning) are invited to a mentor lunch (or breakfast) so teachers can discuss with them expectations of the externship and have past mentors present their experiences and advice. For non-local mentors, these conversations can take place via Skype.
Mentors regularly review student blogs or reflections on the externship work and sign off on timesheets, if students are externing during the school day.
Mentors fill out a survey about the experience and attend their mentee’s externship presentation.
The hope for externship is that students will get valuable day-in-the-life experience in an industry they plan to study, or get an opportunity to try something they have never done before. This was Diego’s experience. Diego completed a junior internship with an engineering firm, as he intended to one day become an engineer. But Diego was a funny student, always cracking a joke and getting laughs from those around him. Through the design thinking process initiated by his teachers to consider externship possibilities, Diego decided he wanted to try stand-up comedy. He reached out to several comedians in the area and finally, through the support of his teacher, found a mentor. His mentor put him in contact with a variety of experts and even helped him get on stage at a comedy show, which was the culminating externship experience. Diego went on to major in engineering in college, but he is also part of his university’s comedy improv team. The externship process provided Diego an opportunity to pursue not necessarily a career path, but an endeavor that brought him joy. For students, the externship experience creates a way to more deeply understand their skills and interests, readying them for the next phase of their lives.
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