Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, Salisbury University | cdbown@salisbury.edu

     An important component of higher education is preparing students to be active citizens. To accomplish this goal, we typically integrate civic engagement through experiential learning. Extending across a wide range of disciplines, these academically directed real-world experiences can include community-based learning, internships, practicum, study abroad, service learning, and simulations. When well designed, these pedagogical practices can transform students and support communities. In this essay, I reflect on the addition of 30-hour micro-internships in COMM 490 during 2020-21 as a form of experiential learning to promote civic engagement.

Incorporating Civic Engagement in a Communication Senior Seminar

     I was an instructor for COMM 490-Communication Senior Seminar at Salisbury University both in Fall 2020 and Spring 2021. COMM 490 is a required course for all communication seniors who do not complete an internship or a course abroad within the major. The course was fully enrolled both semesters, with 15 students from all five of the major’s different tracks. The section Applying your Skills to Public Service was one of several seminar options available to students. It is aimed at addressing civic engagement in the nonprofit sector. Until all 2020, it had only been offered face-to-face.

     During the pandemic, nonprofit organizations were operating remotely with limited capacity while managing an increase in demand for services. This unprecedented scenario posed unique challenges for everyone, and students and internship coordinators had to reimagine new forms of experiential learning adjusted for virtual placements. What did that mean for universities whose mission is to promote civic engagement?

     Civic engagement is a commonly used concept that serves as an “umbrella term” (Saltmarsh, Hartley, & Clayton, 2009, p. 5) to refer to different behaviors whose goal is to better society. Adler and Goggin (2005) define it as “how an active citizen participates in the life of the community in order to improve conditions for others or to help shape the community’s future” (p. 241). In this essay, I call civic engagement those academically directed activities carried out by students and that have a positive impact on communities.

     Micro-internships are generally described as “short-term, professional assignments, comparable to those tasks that could be given to a new hire or a summer intern” (Parker Dewey, n.d.). While there was not a specific amount of time required for the micro-internships in COMM 490, they had to be substantial enough to require at least 30+ hours of students’ time outside of class. The micro-internship projects included journalistic and video content creation, industry research, event planning, and social media and website support. Since I am the campus director of the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance as well, I promote civic engagement and encourage giving students the opportunity to network under academic guidance. With nonprofits operating with fewer financial resources, staff, or volunteers, micro-internships seemed the most logical way to include civic engagement and to connect students with local leaders.

Challenges

     From the beginning of the Fall 2020 semester, it was clear that the knowledge about nonprofits varied significantly among students. This was evident the first week of class, while I was conducting an overview of the nonprofit sector and addressing some common misconceptions, such as whether nonprofits do make profits or if they employ individuals other than volunteers. Students’ motivation varied, too. Some had chosen the section Applying your Skills to Public Service as their first choice while others made it their second or third. Some were eager to fulfill the course objectives while others were merely fulfilling a graduation requirement.

     The second week of classes continued with students listing their professional skills (e.g., business writing, video production, photography, graphic design). This was helpful for them to make decisions on the type of projects they would complete with an organization of their choice. Examples of projects carried out in 2020-21 are listed in Table 1. It was interesting to observe that some talented students who lacked experience outside the university were just realizing that the content they had learned in courses during the past four years could be applied in the “real world.”

Table 1. Suggested Project Ideas for Students

     By the fourth week of the semester, students were already working with their partner organizations. A few struggled to meet the deadline and would claim that they were not getting positive responses. I knew that we were all dealing with unpredictable circumstances, so I helped those who were falling behind by making the initial contacts for them and by providing them with an introductory letter to send to community partners. I asked students to screenshot their exchange of emails or text messages and send them to me to serve as a proof of their attempts to contact nonprofit partners. There were two students out of a total of 30 (both semesters combined) who never completed their projects and did not pass the course, delaying their graduation.

Benefits

     Once an organization agreed to work with a student and both parties had developed a plan, students spent the next eight weeks completing their projects following the eight steps that are listed in Table 2. Colleagues in other departments may find that their majors can do many of the suggested project ideas, as well.

Table 2. 8 Steps for Success.

     Working remotely with nonprofits helped advance civic engagement goals and yielded benefits to all those involved: students, partner organizations, and communities. The first gain for students was new knowledge, both theoretical and technical. They became familiar with an important sector of our economy and realized that it was a viable path for employment. From a practical point of view, students had the chance to further develop soft skills, such as adaptability, teamwork strategies, time management, and emotional intelligence. Hands-on learning included students knowing how to create virtual bingos and auctions, using new platforms, such as Slack to communicate within teams or GooseChase for team-building scavenger hunts. Students also benefited from networking opportunities. Some were offered internship and job opportunities that would not have been presented to them without reaching out to the community, even though they completed their work remotely.

     Equity among students emerged as an unexpected outcome of networking during the pandemic. Students with a vehicle had no advantage over those who did not have personal transportation. All students, no matter their economic background, had the opportunity to learn best practices of how to contact nonprofit professionals remotely and work with them from home.

     Partner organizations benefited, as well. Staff from nonprofits had the opportunity to meet individuals from a new generation of the workforce. New connections often mean fresh perspectives. Students helped improve organizations’ websites, assisting nonprofits in reaching out to or building their audiences, adding relevant and updated content, and integrating features that made the site’s pages interact seamlessly. One student created a “donate” button for an organization’s web page, helping the organization progress from their outdated practice of soliciting mail-in donations. Others supported nonprofits with photo/video coverage, new Twitter or Instagram accounts, a virtual awards ceremony, a 90-day marketing plan, and a community clean-up, among others. When one student partnered with Natik, an organization that serves Mayan grassroots organizations in southern Mexico and northern Guatemala, it dawned on me that students could serve vulnerable communities abroad.

     In terms of civic engagement, some authors (e.g., Boyte & Fretz, 2010) agree that higher education has an important role in serving as a democratizing tool and to solve problems in the community. Although small in scale, students were able to solve some problems in the community and got a glimpse of how the nonprofit sector works, potentially motivating them to volunteer or seek work in the field in the future.

Toward a New Kind of Civic Engagement

     A core value for higher education is to prepare students to be civically engaged. As we (hopefully) emerge from the constraints of the pandemic, this course underscored the importance of civic engagement and our need to continuously revise how we foster it. In this new world, we must adapt to shifts from in-person to online communication and class delivery; recent undergraduate enrollment decreases (National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, 2021); dramatic psychological effects of the pandemic among students (e.g., Selingo, 2021), and probably a cohort of Gen Z students with strengths and gaps in preparation unimagined three years ago.

     Some researchers and educators (e.g., Welch, 2016) affirm that “to make it scholarly, engagement should be theoretically based. The work faculty members and their students engage in with the community partners should be grounded in sound best practices based on ideas and procedures that have been empirically tested and validated” (p. 36). I will continue giving students the option to work remotely with partner organizations, benefiting those without transportation. However, as I carry forward this modality, I will review sound practices and provide students with meaningful readings that give them a more solid background on civic engagement. As a result of this experience, I am working on a study to examine to what extent students’ civic knowledge of and engagement with the nonprofit sector changes by virtual networking and micro-internships. The ultimate goal of this research is the development of more targeted student programming to promote civic engagement.

     As we respond to the needs and expectations of a new generation of students, we must consider the needs of communities, as well, making sure that there is respect for partners and clients while carrying out of these 30+ hour projects. When well designed, micro-internships and other types of experiential learning can serve to promote civic engagement in meaningful ways. For emerging student leaders, experiential learning is an ideal path to improve their awareness of community needs, increase their readiness to lead and work in the “real world,” and support communities whether local or far away. COMM 490 helped students in two ways: to develop soft skills that are increasingly in demand by employers and to articulate what they have gained through their individual projects and during their university experience.

References

Adler, R. P., & Goggin, J. (2005). What do we mean by “civic engagement”? Journal of Transformative Education, 3, 236–253.

Boyte, H. C., & Fretz, E. (2010). Civic professionalism. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 14(2), 67–90.

National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (2021). Current term enrollment estimates. Retrieved April 8, 2022 from https://nscresearchcenter.org/current-term-enrollment-estimates/

Parker Dewey. (n.d.). What is a micro-internship? [FAQs]. Retrieved June 7, 2022 from https://www.parkerdewey.com/faq

Saltmarsh, J., Hartley, M., & Clayton, P. (2009). Democratic engagement white paper. New England Resource Center for Higher Education. Retrieved April 8, 2022 from https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1252&context=gse_pubs

Selingo, J. (2021). The future of Gen Z. How Covid-19 will shape students and higher education for the next decade [Report]. Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved April 8, 2022 from https://store.chronicle.com/collections/reports-guides/products/the-future-of-gen-z

Welch, M. (2016). Engaging higher education: Purpose, platforms, and programs for community engagement. Stylus Publishing.