Background: Internships for college students can enhance their grades, skills, and employment prospects, but finding and completing an internship sometimes requires considerable resources. Consequently, before postsecondary institutions consider mandating this high-impact practice, more evidence is needed regarding the various obstacles students…

At a time when colleges and universities are anxious to prove that their graduates are employable, internships are being increasingly touted as valuable 'high-impact' practices. However, how students themselves conceptualise internships is poorly understood, which inhibits the inclusion of their voices in the employability discourse and…

Internships are widely promoted extra-curricular experiences that can have positive impacts on student outcomes, yet how specific elements of internships contribute to these outcomes and facilitate learning is understudied. In this sequential mixed-methods study, we use sociocultural learning theory to interpret data from surveys (n = 435) and…

Internships are widely viewed as "door openers" to opportunity, yet students without ample financial, social, and institutional supports are often excluded from these experiences. This exclusion is especially problematic for Latinx students attending Hispanic-Serving Institutions, for whom an internship could be transformative. In this…

Internships are a widely touted co-curricular activity that may enhance students' employability, their future wages, and employer talent needs. However, how students themselves understand and conceptualize the internship experience is poorly understood. Reasons why understanding students' perceptions of internships is important include the fact…

Internships are a widely promoted high-impact practice (HIP) across the postsecondary landscape, particularly among minority-serving institutions (MSIs), where internships are seen as potentially transformative vehicles for students' career success and social mobility. However, little research exists on how the design, implementation, and ultimate…

Internships are widely perceived as a "high-impact practice" that opens the doors of opportunity for college students, yet little is known about obstacles to participation. Instead, educators and employers too often view participation as unproblematic, with many postsecondary institutions beginning to mandate internships for graduation…

Internships and other forms of work-based learning are increasingly viewed as essential experiences for college students. Proponents point out that internships help students develop transferable skills, apply academic knowledge to authentic situations, develop professional networks, and facilitate students' socialization and entry into the…

Internships for college students are widely promoted as a "high-impact" practice, yet the academic literature is limited by terminological imprecision, lack of data on intern demographics, and insufficient attention to the impacts of program format on student academic and developmental outcomes. In this mixed-methods study we analyze…