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Kimberly Slover
Director, College Communications
(603) 526-3647
NEW LONDON, N.H., Dec. 9, 2005 - During the 2004-2005 school year, leaders from businesses and non-profit organizations that host student interns worked with members of Colby-Sawyer College to define good partnerships. The first facet of these discussions, known as the Campus-Community Partnership Roundtable Discussions, culminated with a Best Practices Model.
The model defines types of partnerships; outlines skills and attributes people will develop through partnerships; and establishes criteria to evaluate the success of these partnerships. LuAnne Ryall, assistant director of the Harrington Center for Career Development and Community Service, hopes the model will prove useful to people in a range of fields.
“I think that we brought together a nice cross-section of people for the discussions,” Ryall said. “We asked provocative questions and people who came to the sessions had a strong commitment to wanting to make our partnerships stronger. We had very thoughtful and intentional conversations about partnerships”
Discussions began in November 2004 and included Colby-Sawyer faculty, staff and students, along with representatives from Enterprise Rent-a-Car, The Fells, Grantham Indoor, Kearsarge Regional School District, Lake Sunapee Visiting Nurses Association and New London Hospital. The efforts came about as a result of two grants awarded to the Harrington Center by Campus Compact of New Hampshire, an organization that promotes student community service and encourages partnerships between campuses and communities.
Among their projects is to manage AmeriCorps programs for New Hampshire. Participants were charged with examining the relationships among student interns and volunteers, faculty and site supervisors, and assessing what works well and ways in which the college, businesses and non-profit organizations may create new opportunities for students.
“It was interesting for me to think about the different ways that we could partner with not only Colby-Sawyer, but also other non-profit organizations,” said Cathy Raymond, the public relations and marketing and development coordinator with the Lake Sunapee Region Visiting Nurse Association (VNA). “We're a home nursing care agency, but as we talked, we explored ways in which we could work with Colby-Sawyer students in ways that had nothing to do with nursing.”
Raymond noted, for example, that a history, society and culture major may be able to complete an internship that compiles an oral history of the Lake Sunapee Region VNA. A student interested in creating Web sites may be able to design one for a non-profit that may not be able to afford to hire a professional designer.
About 99 percent of the college's students complete internships, which are an important way for students to “try on” careers. Many of those who participated in the roundtable talks either were students who had completed internships or employers who worked with Colby-Sawyer interns.
The roundtable participants identified the partnerships as internships, student-teaching internships, practicums, community-based research, volunteerism, clinical internships and clinical preceptorships. Employers who participated in the roundtable talks considered ways in which stronger relationships with the college's faculty, staff and students can be nurtured.
Laura Nelson, assistant superintendent of the Kearsarge Regional School District, was new to the school district when the roundtable discussions kicked off in the fall of 2004. She said the discussions were a good introduction to the types of partnerships in which the college, area businesses and non-profit groups are engaged. About 10 Colby-Sawyer students intern with the district each year, and about 60 volunteer through the AmeriCorps program. “The school districts that I've worked with have had very positive relationships with colleges in their communities. I think that colleges can do great things for their communities,” Nelson said.
She envisions finding ways in which the district's schools and college can work together beyond the solid student teacher relationships that have already been established. Teachers and students may be able to take advantage of the college's rich cultural opportunities. Colby-Sawyer students may be able to secure internships in non-teaching roles. Bringing college students into the school system serves many purposes, according to Nelson.
“We help Colby-Sawyer students become part of the local new England life and experience things they may not have done before,” she said. “Our children need these college students as role models and for positive peer relationships.”
During the next phase of discussions, Ryall intends to work with others to identify and enhance existing partnerships between the college and community. The group also will need to establish criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of partnerships. “We need to communicate the essence of partnerships and use the Best Practices Model to make informed changes,” she said.
