Internships are a high-impact practice that help students gain valuable career skills—including a professional network, on-the-job skills and résumé experiences—that they can take with them after graduation.
Despite the powerful outcomes of internships, not every student is able to participate in one. A September report from the Business–Higher Education Forum found of the 8.2 million students who wanted to intern in 2023, close to half didn’t. Many of these students are from historically marginalized groups, including first-generation, low-income and community college students and students of color.
To meet this demand, some colleges provide funding for underpaid internships, allowing students to opt into unpaid or low-paid roles without jeopardizing their financial stability. Others are looking to make on-campus experiences richer.
In 2022, the University of New Hampshire launched Campus-2-Career, a campuswide program that equips students with career competencies through their on-campus work positions.
In this episode of Voices of Student Success, host Ashley Mowreader speaks with Gretchen Heaton, associate vice provost for career and professional success and high-impact practices at the University of New Hampshire, to learn more about the program’s goals and how efforts have scaled since launching.
An edited version of the podcast appears below.
Inside Higher Ed: Where did the idea for Campus-2-Career come from? What does it look like on campus?
Gretchen Heaton, associate vice provost for career and professional success and high-impact practices
University of New Hampshire
Heaton: UNH is really committed to experiential education for students. This actually began as the brainchild of our vice provost and online learning officer, Ken La Valley. His executive leadership, really, was the impetus that was needed to start this program.
But the idea was, we have many students who are participating in on campus employment. For many of them, we know that they have financial reasons that they need to work on campus, and that might limit their opportunities to engage in other internship opportunities. So we wanted to make sure that we’re giving them a high-impact experience and giving them some additional opportunities for professional development. This began as a pilot last year, with a few offices on campus, very successful, and now we’re in the expansion phase and moving to spread it across the entire campus.
Inside Higher Ed: You mentioned a lot of these students are taking on-campus jobs for financial reasons, which makes sense—they want to get paid for their work. But we also know that there just aren’t enough internships to go around for students. And I wonder if you can talk a little bit about that, too, where work-based learning is super critical to the student experience, but not everyone has it in the curriculum or is able to do those experiences.
Heaton: We’re very proud at UNH that we have approximately 75 percent of our students who are engaging in at least one internship, but we are committed to bringing that number as close to 100 percent as possible.
I think it’s … more of an equity issue, truly. There are a lot of opportunities for experiential education and internships, but the question is “Are students getting access to those opportunities, and do they have the financial resources to be able to engage with them?” So that’s really our focus. We have a very robust employer relations program at UNH, and that is really helpful. And they’ve actually been advising us on the creation of the Campus-2-Career program. But really, to me, I think it comes down to equity. There’s lots of opportunities, but how do we make sure that students know about them and can engage with them?
Inside Higher Ed: I think when the average person thinks of an on-campus job, they’re probably thinking like the cashiers, the librarians or things like that. But part of this program is making this experience richer and deeper, so they might still be doing those things, but how do we make it career oriented? Can you talk about that duality? Where it’s not necessarily giving students a new job, it’s just making that job more connected to their longer career goals.
Heaton: To clarify, this is an optional opportunity for students, so students can choose not to participate in Campus-2-Career, and we don’t have Campus-2-Career yet in every single on-campus opportunity.
But we really describe it to students as an opportunity to— They’re already doing this work, so why not build in some additional professional development opportunities on top of that? And so some of the hours that students are getting paid for, they’re actually doing training instead of doing whatever their job happens to be on campus.
We’ve worked really hard to make sure that there are lots of resources for the students, lots of resources for the on-campus managers, and that there is lots of communication about what this program entails. Most of the students, if not all of them—I actually can’t think of a student who has had has told us that they had a negative experience as part of the pilot—but the students have told us that this is something they want. This makes sense to them, and they were really eager to participate, and they felt like it really benefited them as they went through the program.
Inside Higher Ed: When you talk about professional development, what does that look like practically? What are the students doing?
Heaton: We have designed a series of microcredentials, which are based on the NACE [National Association of Colleges and Employers] competencies. So they’re in areas such as communication, leadership, all of those different kinds of really core, necessary skills for students to have.
We have developed a rubric and a set of curricula for each of those microcredentials. The students have opportunities to engage in reflection with their supervisor repeatedly over the course of a semester, and then there’s a reflective presentation at the end, where they pull everything together and they talk about what they have learned and how they’ve applied it in real life.
But equally as important, we’re training them how to articulate the experience that they had. We have seen that this is often a gap for students. They’ve done amazing work, but they don’t know how to describe it in language that is understandable for employers. So part of the training is, very specifically, how do you describe and give an example effectively of what you have done as part of this on-campus job?
Inside Higher Ed: I think that’s something—students sit down at interviews with, maybe a future employer, an internship employer, and it’s like, “I do have all this rich experience,” but you’re right; translating those skills into things that make sense for the employer or the hiring manager, whoever they’re talking to, is something that continues to be a need, and it’s super important that it’s done well and effectively.
Heaton: I will just say, post-COVID, we’re seeing an increased need for this, for opportunities for students to articulate and practice articulating what they’ve done and communicating in a professional manner with potential employers.
Inside Higher Ed: You mentioned the role of the supervisor in that on-campus job. I wonder if you can talk about what that training has looked like, or how you’ve empowered your on-campus staff to be mentors and help develop this professional relationship with their employees as well?
Heaton: This program would not work if we did not have well-trained and enthusiastic managers, which is why we have worked really hard to build out a whole set of resources and a program for them to follow, so that this doesn’t feel overwhelming for them.
We’ve been delighted at how responsive people have been to the idea of doing this. I think, personally, this is an opportunity for professional development for managers as well. To think about how they’re communicating with students and helping them to grow. It’s a combination of, this is something that people have turned out to be really eager to participate in—in part because they care about our students deeply—but they also want to grow themselves.
Also, we’ve really tried to make this a smooth process, so they don’t have to spend a lot of time finding their own resources. We’ve already developed them for them.
Inside Higher Ed: There was a pilot phase, and now you’re scaling up larger. I don’t know if you’re at the campuswide implementation yet, but what is that process looking like? And what kind of resources are you needing to make this effective?
Heaton: So in the pilot phase, we engaged with four different units on campus who were eager, who basically just volunteered their time and said, yes, let’s do this.
Once we saw how successful the program was, we hired a full-time staff member or director of high-impact practices, who was actually part of the process right from the beginning. But now he actually has the luxury of time to be able to really focus on managing this program.
In large part, it’s really about communication, and sharing the news and sharing testimonials from students. Students, I’ll be honest—we’ve been pretty overwhelmed with a positive response. So now it’s how do we manage this thoughtfully and make sure that we’re not moving so fast that it gets out of control? While, at the same time, we’re really starting to ramp up opportunities for more students to engage with it.
I think executive sponsorship has been hugely important in this process, but I also think that there is something about the community at UNH, where we’re just eager to try new things, and people genuinely care a lot about the student experience, and so they’re on board with doing this.
Inside Higher Ed: It’s an opt-in process for students, so they can have an on-campus job but not be in Campus-2-Career. And I wonder, as we’re speaking about equity gaps and the students who are less likely to engage in experiential learning, sometimes that can be the same group. I’m thinking of first-gen students who are balancing home and family and work, and they’re like, “Oh, I don’t know if I can add something else to my already busy schedule.” Is that something that the university is grappling with?
Heaton: It’s more about just making sure that the managers are well trained in describing the opportunity and encouraging any student to participate in the opportunity, reassuring them that there actually will be time set aside for them to do this personal and professional growth. I don’t see that as much of an issue, because we’ve been very thoughtful about building out time for students to be able to participate in this program for all of those reasons.
One thing that we haven’t mentioned yet, but which is another factor in this, is we see through our own data that there’s a direct connection—particularly in the first year—between student participation and on-campus jobs and retention. So we are actively thinking about this as a retention initiative as well, and really training managers to talk about why this is beneficial to students and get them upward.
Inside Higher Ed: Another trend that we see a lot in career development is that first- and second-year students are less likely to be thinking careers early. It’s more of juniors and seniors who are maybe applying for internships, or [when] looking to graduate that they start thinking, “Oh, I need to talk to the career center and start working on professional development.” Is this a program that can target students early? And how are we making sure that students know about the benefits of professional development earlier in their college career?
Heaton: I’m very proud of the fact that our career development program at UNH is really directly embedded into the academic experience for students across all of the colleges. We are doing our darnedest from the second that they get on campus to explain to them why it is important for them to participate in career development, providing them with access to resources so they understand all those things.
However, this is one additional way that we can demonstrate to students that career development is important. But not just that, that any opportunity you have to do work—whether or not it’s volunteering or whatever it is—that is a place where you’re growing professional skills that should end up on your résumé. I think that’s even more important than just the push to get students thinking about career development.
Inside Higher Ed: You talked a little bit about the microcredentials that are embedded in the program and that students can be badged for each of their career competencies that they show proficiency in. How are you talking to students about the value of those microcredentials? And have you talked to employers at all about how they’re viewing microcredentials as well?
Heaton: I think I’ve been a bit surprised by how eager students are to engage with microcredentials. They’re kind of way ahead of us, if you ask me. They see the value and being able to articulate visually in a very sort of pithy way that they have excelled in a certain skill.
When we talk to our employer partners, they’re excited about the fact that a microcredential really can quantify for them the student experience, but most importantly, they just want to see the student engaging professionally and demonstrating in an interview or on an internship that they have those skills. I think the microcredentials are kind of the cherry on top for employers, but at the end of the day, it’s what can the student bring to the table when they’re actually applying those skills in real life, in an employment situation.
Inside Higher Ed: What is next for the program? We talked a little bit about scaling it up campuswide, but what are you eager to do next?
Heaton: I would say we’re eager to talk to other colleges and universities across the United States about what we’re doing, to share resources, to see what they’re doing. We’re really excited about this work.
On top of this, though, this is one piece of a larger initiative at UNH where we’re focusing or doubling down on equity for our students. So in career development, we’ve actually created a new unit called the high-impact practices unit, and part of what we’re trying to accomplish there is to really dig into the data and say, “Great, we have 75 percent of our students who are participating in at least one internship. But where are the gaps?”
Across the colleges, those statistics are not similar, so we’re looking at the data, and we’re trying to find creative new solutions to those equity gaps, and Campus-2-Career is just one example of what we hope to see as many new initiatives across the university. We’re very focused on the idea that career development is a responsibility of every unit across the campus—faculty, students, student orgs [and] staff. We are all in this together, so I just see this as the first step in a lot of really exciting new opportunities.
Inside Higher Ed: If you had to give advice or insight based on how the pilot’s gone or what you’re looking forward to, what would you share with an institution that’s looking to replicate this work?
Heaton: I would say it’s OK to start small. And I would also say it’s really critical to have executive sponsors in your back corner.
I would also say taking the time to build out those resources in advance, and we’re happy to share the resources that we have is going to get you very far, because managers are critical to this. So you want to make sure that they’re feeling as comfortable as possible with the process.
Start small, engage your executive sponsors, but then make sure you take the time to build out the resources so that this program can be successful.
Inside Higher Ed: Yeah, when you say executive sponsors, is that a financial relationship, or are they providing insights as well?
Heaton: I think it’s more that they are people who understand the value of what we’re doing, and they’re going to communicate that value in all of the important places. So certainly, financial support is necessary and helpful, right? I’m not going to deny that. But even more than that, it’s just we have people who are talking right from the top, and it’s trickling down across the university about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it and what the value is.
Inside Higher Ed: It seems like this fits a lot of UNH’s goals for student success. We’ve talked about retention; we’ve talked about student satisfaction [and] professional development for both staff and students. Are there any other metrics of success that you’re looking at as you’re evaluating the program, or things that you’re hoping the program ties to larger institutional goals?
Heaton: So I don’t think we’ve gotten there quite yet, but over time, I’d like to really use data to make connections to on-campus student employment and then additional opportunities. Are we seeing an increase in the number of students of specific populations, for example, who are then participating in additional kinds of experiential education, or who are potentially being more successful in getting their first job? We have pretty strong student success rates at the university, but once again, there’s always equity gaps and barriers, and so I think we’ll be looking very in great detail to see whether or not we’re shifting the needle in a positive direction for those students.
I came on board at UNH just about a year ago, and it’s just so exciting to be part of a university that has really invested in career development, but is also investing in innovative ways to think about career development. I’ve never heard anyone say no at UNH; it’s rather, “How can we accomplish this? What do you need?” It’s really exciting to see that. And I’m just excited to see what’s going to come in the next five years, 10 years with this work that we’re doing around equity.
Listen to previous episodes of Voices of Student Success here.