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ELC Updates

Power Your Experience

Many people wonder, what’s exactly the “Experiential Learning Center (ELC)?”  Experiential Learning activities include academic internships, service-learning and undergraduate research.  The ELC works closely with students, faculty, employers and community partners to provide quality experiential learning opportunities that enhance academic learning, integrate theory and practice, and promote professional development and active citizenship. Experiential learning includes a variety of activities with one common goal: to immerse students in hands-on learning outside the classroom where experience is at the heart of the learning process.  In short, the Experiential Learning Center is the “Go-To” campus resource for all these activities.

This past year has brought many changes to the ELC.  Under the new leadership of Director Tony Smith, the ELC has implemented a number of process improvements.  Multiple orientation workshops have been added, enabling us to increase service by more than 66 students per week. Learning Agreement submissions, evaluations and assessment processes have been streamlined, improving efficiency and convenience to students, employers and faculty engaged in experiential learning activities.  Office space has been redesigned, including workshop space for use by the ELC as well as faculty, community partners and student groups.  A food pantry for CU Denver students has been created and has served over 270 students thus far.  These various process improvements have enabled us to more efficiently serve all our constituents. 

In addition to process improvement, you may have begun to recognize the large blue symbol around campus, representing our new “Power Your Experience” brand.  This new brand is symbolic of what we do.  This symbol was chosen because the ELC gives students all the resources they need to “power” their experience; they just have to hit the button and go!

We’ve also been reaching out to constituents in new ways by utilizing various social networking sites such as Facebook, Blogger and YouTube.  We’ve been employing new video marketing techniques to improve campus-wide awareness.  These videos were created by students for students.  With this philosophy in mind, we hope to gain more awareness and showcase the power of student involvement. 

All these improvements have shown positive results.  Just over the past year, we’ve successfully filled 485 internship placements (translating to just under 2 internship placements per day), surpassing last year and have recorded nearly 50,000 student volunteer hours – an increase of 30%.  The statistics speak for themselves.  We are increasing the quantity and quality of our experiential learning assistance to students, faculty and ELC partners.  

The ELC remains committed to maintaining an attitude of service.  We go out of our way to help, whether that comes in the form of experiential assistance or simply walking a lost student down the hall to find an office.  Our mantra is: “We are the Experiential Learning Center and we are here for you!”

Outstanding Intern of the Year

The UC Denver Experiential Learning Center (ELC) facilitates hundreds of internships each year. To recognize student accomplishments as interns, one student intern is named as “outstanding.” The 2010-11 Outstanding Intern of the Year recipient is Anne Mailhot, undergraduate biology.

Mailhot participated in a summer 2010 undergraduate research internship with Virginia Winn, MD, a researcher in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University Of Colorado School Of Medicine. Throughout the internship, Mailhot was teamed with professional research staff and contributed in experiments related to placental biopsies.

Mailhot’s commitment to excellence impressed her faculty sponsor Aimee Bernard, PhD. In her nomination, Bernard wrote, “Anne was a very hard-working, dedicated and consistently exemplary student . . . [who] serves as a role model for future internship students.” It was Mailhot’s dedication and great work ethic that helped her exceed in the challenging biology internship.

Mailhot went above and beyond basic intern requirements by utilizing her public speaking skills to showcase her part in Winn’s research at the April 15 Research and Creative Activities Symposium, resulting in a nomination for the Outstanding Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities award. For that endeavor, Mailhot was awarded the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research.

According to Winn, the department profited from Mailhot’s hard work, particularly due to a new database system she created to better organize departmental information.

Mailhot said the work benefitted her, too. “This experience helped to reaffirm my goals to pursue a career as a physician and, unexpectedly, had profound impacts on my individuality, perseverance and confidence.”

Since graduating, Mailhot is utilizing her expertise as a Clinical Research Coordinator at the Anschutz Medical Campus. She also will be a keynote speaker for the Experiential Learning Showcase and Celebration occurring spring 2012.

She credits her internship for developing skills needed to further her career in the biological field. “I will continue to use the skills that I developed from the guidance of my mentors and the experiences I gained from research as I continue on my path as a professional and as an aspiring physician.”

Week Twenty: Last Day . . . At My Other Job!

Well, this is my last day as an intern at the office.  I’m feeling a bit sad, but that’s because I’m quitting . . . my other job to work here next semester as the first paid Staff Writer!  I’m very excited to get an opportunity such as this.  It never seemed too much like a job here and it’s hard to believe that I will actually getting paid for my writing.  I never thought I would see the day . . .

Let’s take a look at this for a minute.  I spent well over five years bagging groceries and working customer service.  Not that this was a bad job or anything, but I’m going to college to be a writer.  I was hesitant in the first place to get an internship.  I knew that I would be graduating soon.  I also knew that I would need experience to get a job but that I wouldn’t be able to get experience without getting a job that I couldn’t get because it required experience.  Confusing?  It’s the paradox of our generation.

Luckily, I found out about internships.  I went into the ELC to get help getting an internship and they were so helpful they gave me an internship as Staff Writer.  Not only did I get college credit and experience in my field but now I am also doing this as my job.  Getting this real-world experience also helped me figure out exactly what I wanted to do when I graduate.   I now have experience, my writing is getting published, and I’m gaining important networking connections . . . who knew that this many avenues would have opened up for me through this internship?  I encourage each and every person to get an internship and start actually doing what you want to do.