Everything you are doing this year will help you grow and learn. All program activities are linked to learning outcomes as well as university and national competencies. You will see these listed on assignments and we’ll share them during events where relevant.

IU Indianapolis Profiles 

IU Indianapolis’s Profiles of Learning for Undergraduate Success (Profiles) contains broad categories of learning all students will engage in at IU Indianapolis. These include Communicator, Problem Solver, Innovator, and Community Contributor. More information can be found at https://profiles.indianapolis.iu.edu/

You will likely engage with all of these categories during your internship work and as part of program assignments. Keep these in mind as you set goals, reflect on your experience, and consider next steps after LHSI.

NACE Career Competencies

The National Association of Colleges and Employers has identified eight career competencies that all college graduates should achieve to be considered “career-ready.” Career readiness means that you are prepared to succeed in the workplace, make informed career decisions, and manage your career path for the rest of your life.

These competencies are Career and Self-Development, Communication, Critical Thinking, Equity and Inclusion, Leadership, Professionalism, Teamwork, and Technology. LHSI activities and assignments cover all of these competencies and you will see them referenced on assignments, during activities, and in your self-assessment of your skills. You can also view your NACE Career Competencies progress in the Outcomes section of Canvas.

LHSI Learning Outcomes

We have four main goals for all interns. It’s not enough to just do an internship, you have to also gain something from it and be able to talk about what you learned. The assignments, activities, and ePortfolio prompts are all structured to help you reach these goals. These are our goals for you and the program activities and requirements to help you reach those goals.

 

Identify your emerging professional identity.

Even if you’ve had a job before, you were probably told what to do and when to do it, following exactly what you were told to do. An internship will likely be your first opportunity to be more independent, think critically, make your own decisions about what to do next to accomplish a task or project, and grow a professional network. This internship is your opportunity to not only grow as a professional, but to figure out who you are as a professional. What do you value? What is your work style? How do you contribute to a team?

Specific outcomes:

  • Interns will examine roles and strengths on a professional team.
  • Interns will analyze changes in professional identity.
  • Interns will analyze progress toward successes and overcoming challenges.

How we will achieve these learning outcomes:

  • ePortfolio prompts
  • Participation in chats, discussion boards, and workshops
  • Fall site visit and spring check-in

Demonstrate career-related skills gained from the internship and other experiential learning.

Internships are about gaining skills and relevant experience. By the end of LHSI, you should have learned important skills that you can take with you to any job or field. You should also be able to talk about the skills you gained and have concrete examples of the outcomes of applying those skills. What did you learn? What were you able to accomplish?

Specific outcomes:

  • Applicants will articulate transferable skills and experience.
  • Interns will understand the relevance of transferable skills to the next steps after graduation.
  • Interns will assess growth in transferable skills.

How we will achieve these learning outcomes:

  • ePortfolio prompts
  • Participation at your internship site
  • Final project and LHSI showcase in April

Explain and analyze your career goals.

Use the internship to explore your career field and options. Whether you’re just beginning to explore science and healthcare or you’ve decided on a pathway but want to learn more, internships can help get you there. Being able to explain why you’ve chosen a particular field or job and how you know you’re sure is the key to a good interview, whether it be for a job or graduate or professional school. Why did you choose this field? How do you know it’s the right one for you?

Specific outcomes:

  • Applicants will articulate how the internship fits with their goals.
  • Interns will select resources and opportunities to analyze career decisions and plan next steps.
  • Interns will understand how classroom learning and internship experiences support preparedness for accomplishing professional goals.

How we will achieve these learning outcomes:

  • Mid-year workshop
  • Fall site visit and spring check-in
  • ePortfolio prompts
  • Internship goals worksheet

Communicate about your experience in a way that is appropriate to the audience, purpose, and context.

This year you’ll learn a lot of vocabulary, terms, and acronyms common to your field. Your internship team is a great resource for learning the lingo and we’ll help you learn how to translate that for anyone to understand. While it’s exciting to learn the language used in your future career, we want you to be able to tell friends, family, and the campus community about your internship work in a way that makes sense to them. Being able to communicate your work to the general public is a good skill to have for any career!

Specific outcomes:

  • Interns will develop an ePortfolio to communicate the internship experience and professional growth.
  • Interns will create a showcase presentation to communicate the internship work to a broad audience.

How we will achieve these learning outcomes:

  • ePortfolio prompts
  • Fall site visit
  • Elevator pitch (written and visual)
  • Project summary for LHSI showcase website