holding power of internships: analyzing retention in a school-to-career program, The

Community College Enterprise, The, Fall 2004 by Ryken, Amy E

Longitudinal cohort analysis

Retention milestones were selected based on the program's stated goals and student participants' descriptions of benchmarks encountered in the three-year program. Student participation was documented in a database and included information related to school and job performance taken from student intern and co-op applications, work performance evaluations, and school transcripts. Cohort tables were created to calculate persistence and attrition rates for different characteristics of students (e.g., internship participation, sex, ethnicity, high school attended). By calculating rates, the author could judge the effect of internship or co-op jobs on retention in the program. The author used comparative percentages to demonstrate that program designers can productively use descriptive statistics to analyze student experiences.

Participant interviews

In an effort to understand the details of student educational and career decision-making using purposeful sampling (Miles & Huberman, 1994), a subset of 22 students, 6 teachers, and 4 worksite supervisors was individually interviewed for approximately one hour each. Interview guidelines focused on experiences in community college and high school, co-op jobs and internships, relationships between school and work, and structures that helped students complete the program and obtain a community college credential.

Analysis: reaching the milestones

The author analyzed the role of internships and co-op jobs in student retention by identifying program milestones and examining individual student progress in reaching each milestone. Retention statistics are supported by interview statements that add detail to individual students' experiences in the program. For example, in an essay about his co-op job, one student highlighted the importance of having an educational and career pathway that linked high school, college and work, and more importantly, made multiple educational and career options visible:

One of the things that I have always liked about the program is that one always has multiple options concerning their future. For example, if one decides to leave the biotech academy after graduating from high school that person's resume would still include two summer internships in scientific areas of occupation. If one so chose they could complete the program and stay in school to earn higher credentials.

Milestone I: graduating from high school

The first program milestone is graduation from high school. Students who participate in an internship during high school are more likely to continue with the program. In interviews, students highlighted the role of internships in providing experience, relevance, and motivation to study biotechnology; students suggested that by making a commitment to an internship they supported their own progress in the program.

I'm not sure what career direction I would like to focus on. I'm not sure what exact career I would like to have but I believe that's what the program's internships and co-op jobs are for. These jobs give me experience and an idea of what I would want to do once I've finished college.