By Corey Scott, Experiential Learning Projects Coordinator, Career Services
Brad Murphy, Manager, Education and Collaboration Technologies, at 成人大片 ITS, decided to hire an intern in the spring of 2016. Mr. Murphy has brought on student employees through the Summer Work Experience Program (SWEP) in the past, but this time he wanted a longer-term placement to help with an upcoming priority project.
In February 2014, the Provost鈥檚 Task Force on the Student Learning Experience, published the 鈥楾eaching and Learning Action Plan鈥. One of the recommendations that emerged from this report was to 鈥渄evelop university-wide support for eLearning鈥, including 鈥渁 single portal for all online courses and programs across the university鈥. In order to implement this solution, Queen鈥檚 University selected a new learning management system (LMS) called Brightspace to replace the Moodle platform. As they worked with the vendor to customize the product (now referred to as onQ) for the University鈥檚 needs, it became clear that they would need someone to help with project implementation.
Mr. Murphy turned to the Queen鈥檚 Undergraduate Internship Program (QUIP) for help finding the right student employee. 鈥淚t was very important to our team that we hire a student because the project was about improving the student learning experience鈥, said Mr. Murphy. 鈥淲hat better way to do that then to get the perspective of a student!鈥
Enter Jacey Carnegie, now in the fourth year of a psychology degree. To say Ms. Carnegie has a diverse skillset is a bit of an understatement, as she is also enrolled in the Business Certificate program offered by the Smith School of Business, and is considering taking the Queen鈥檚 Master of Science in Occupational Therapy upon the completion of her undergraduate degree.
As the 鈥榦nQ Transition Lead鈥, with the ITS department, Ms. Carnegie鈥檚 primary responsibility is to assist faculty and staff through a significant change management process. According to Ms. Carnegie, her psychology program taught her a lot about how people learn, and how to implement the most effective teaching methods to help individuals and teams adjust to the new LMS.
Mr. Murphy approached the task of hiring and mentoring an intern with a clear philosophy: 鈥淚 wanted to help a student by providing a strong and challenging learning environment where the student could gain professional skills, and at the same time find an individual who could meet the demands of the project鈥. In other words, Mr. Murphy was targeting a reciprocal relationship in which 鈥渢he student鈥檚 learning goals aligned with the department鈥檚 needs鈥.
As it turned out, reciprocal benefit is exactly what Mr. Murphy and Ms. Carnegie received from the mentee-mentor relationship. According to Ms. Carnegie, the internship has positively impacted her academic performance and her future career aspirations: 鈥淚 gained a lot of experience improving my writing and verbal communication skills that I think will provide an advantage for many of the assessments I will face in the final year of my degree. I've also honed my organization and time management skills. In the summer months, I had the opportunity to manage a team of 3 students, in addition to a team of 3 students during the Fall term. This experience alone has given me an invaluable number of transferable skills鈥.
According to Mr. Murphy, 鈥淛acey had a huge impact on the project; she outshined our expectations and was a tremendous addition to the team鈥.
Brad Murphy expects to hire Queen鈥檚 interns again in the future through the QUIP program. He commented on his appreciation of the QUIP program format, which offers 12-16 month internships, and from his perspective, allows students to see a project through from start to finish. When asked if anything surprised him about the internship experience Mr. Murphy replied: 鈥淚 honed my own managerial skills in the process. An intern demands a different level of attention than more experienced staff. You want them to succeed, and you want to make sure they have the support they need to excel. It made me revisit how I approached coaching and mentoring. This was a really unexpected bonus from the experience鈥.
As Mr. Murphy and Ms. Carnegie experienced, when the goals of student learning are aligned with an employer鈥檚 needs, reciprocal benefits are likely to follow.