STEMpath Externships Provide Transformative, Real World Experiences for Teachers

Work-based learning experiences, such as externships and internships, can be transformative for professional development and training effectiveness. STEMpath, our professional learning program for educators developed in partnership with mindSpark Learning and Metropolitan State University of Denver, includes a critical externship component. The externship is credit bearing and part of the Computer Science Master’s certificate educators earn. STEMpath 2020 just wrapped up its second semester with 6-week industry externships. We're incredibly proud to be a part of this adventure not only as a key STEMpath partner, but we've also hosted a virtual teacher extern at Couragion for the past two summers. We did have the opportunity to participate in the final presentations that were the culmination of a summer externship.

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Externships are effective mechanisms to expose individuals to real world experiences. Unlike internships, they are not a means for recruiting or preparing people to work in industry. Research shows that externships are a key differentiator in educator professional development. And when structured as an extended individualized experience the typical results are improved teacher motivation and confidence, increased teacher commitment to teaching, enhanced teacher knowledge and abilities, and sustained changes to classroom practice. Let's hear the direct perspectives of our STEMpath teachers from a survey they completed about their 2020 externships.

What about the externship did you find the most useful to you as an educator?

  • The opportunity to work in a company and experience the employability skills first hand.

  • Seeing the skills in action and having the chance to debrief every week with the other educators about how to implement them in the classroom.

  • I found that working with a business to implement what I was learning was the greatest asset and really put everything into perspective.

  • The responsibility to learn and do tasks.

  • Getting real-world experience and seeing the application of things we learned in the first semester - Equity-Centered Design Thinking, User Experience (UX), Data, SCRUM, and soft skills.

  • Everything, especially seeing how the business came together through the epidemic and everyone still worked together as a team.



Registration is now open for STEMpath 2021! Learn more at the program here.

Melissa Risteff