Student Fieldwork

Increasingly, community-based internships (sometimes referred to as ‘fieldwork’) are the capstone to undergraduates’ professional preparation (Cleary et al., 1998). Rojas-Guyler et al. (2006) found 83% of undergraduate programs required some internship experience. Partnered with seasoned professionals in the community, internships enable students to apply their academic preparation to the real world. Internships enhance students’ classroom-based development and capacity to perform as professionals (Barnett, 1995; Lindsay, Hanks, Neiger & Barnes, 2000). Internships improve employment options after graduation, help students develop a sense of work value, and ease their transition into the real world (Taylor, 1988). Successful internships can be invaluable in enhancing students’ marketability, as many will be competing against candidates who did not graduate from a health education curriculum (Lindsay et al., 2000). …show more content…
Just as effectively grading classroom work is not straightforward, so too is it challenging to assess students’ performance as interns (Bogo et al., 2004). Complicating these evaluations, many students advance to internship with the assumption -- shared by both faculty and the student -- that they are appropriately prepared for the experience. If a student successfully completes coursework and fieldwork, reflected in satisfactory grades or other forms of evaluation, the student should be “academically, behaviorally and ethically” fit to practice health education (Cole & Lewis, 1993) -- or so goes the