10/02/2024
By Zakkiyya Witherspoon
The School of Education invites you to attend a doctoral dissertation defense by Austin A. Gilliland “Adult Community College Students and Internships.”
Candidate: Austin A. Gilliland
Degree: Doctoral in Leadership in Education
Defense Date: Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024
Time: 2:30 p.m.
Location: Via Zoom
Thesis/Dissertation Title: "Adult Community College Students and Internships”
Dissertation Committee
- Dissertation Chair: A.J. Angulo, Ed.D., Professor of Education, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell
- James Nehring, Ed.D., Professor Emeritus, Leadership in Schooling, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell
- Hilary Lustick, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Curriculum and Instruction, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Abstract
Existing research separately explores topics of community colleges, adult college students, and internships. This research shows community colleges to be uniquely situated to support workforce development, adult college students to have unique needs from traditional age college students, and internships to be effective workforce development tools. This qualitative study explores the three topics together by seeking to better understand adult community college students and community college internship staff perceptions about adult students and internships. Adult community college students and internship staff were interviewed across five community colleges in the Northeast. Findings show perceptions of staff and students are mostly aligned, including an understanding that adult students approach internships differently than traditional age students, seeing value in internships for adult students entering new fields, and the importance of college faculty in connecting students to internships. This study did reveal gaps in career development support for those adult students seeking growth in their current employment fields.