By Allison Duncan
“Use your network” is good advice not just for job-seeking students, but also for educators looking to introduce students to jobs, employers and further training within their fields of study. Immaculata is strengthening its network by expanding partnerships with numerous organizations to offer students experiential learning, tuition discounts, industry-informed coursework, clinical training and pathways to graduate programs. In recent years, Immaculata’s faculty and staff have built multiple strategic relationships to enrich the education the University provides and to attract more students.
Partnerships That Offer Experiential Learning
Internships, field experiences and clinical placements complement Immaculata’s degree programs and help students apply their learning through on-the-job experience that meets the needs of employers. In addition, University-employer partnerships give students networking opportunities and firsthand industry insights to help them succeed in their careers.
Most of Immaculata’s undergraduate and graduate programs require students to participate in experiential learning. Immaculata has more than 330 agreements with health care organizations for clinical experiences, along with numerous relationships with organizations in other industries that regularly offer internships to IU students.
According to a Strada Education Foundation study of employment among college graduates, “internship participation is strongly associated with lower underemployment after graduation.” Immaculata’s alumni frequently report that their internships helped them land job offers with good salaries in their fields. Highlights of various experiential learning opportunities are presented below.
Psychology Internship Consortium: “A Thoughtful Balance of Experiences”
One of the most robust experiential learning opportunities Immaculata offers is the Psychology and Counseling Department’s Psychology Internship Consortium (IU-PIC), which is accredited by the American Psychological Association and provides Immaculata’s clinical psychology doctoral students with a competitive edge during the final year of their doctoral training. As a training consortium, the IU-PIC works with 12 affiliated training sites, that employ and supervise an incoming cohort of 20 trainees, located within the tri-state area. The affiliated training sites include diverse organizations, including community mental health, integrated medical/multidisciplinary settings, university counseling centers and neuropsychological and forensics assessment practices. Interns accepted into the IU-PIC attend monthly didactic seminar days wherein they rejoin their cohort for a series of thoughtfully planned speakers, discussion of current clinical/ethical issues and peer socialization in which they learn about each other’s training experiences. Concurrently, the IU-PIC works with the training sites to support their training programs with continued education offerings and a community of clinical supervisors with whom to interact.
The internship prepares doctoral students to function ethically, competently and independently as professional psychologists as they refine clinical skills and develop a sense of professional identity. Brian Esposito ’15 Psy.D., a psychologist who works in private practice, appreciated how skilled his supervisors were during his internship. “There was a thoughtful balance of academically and clinically advanced development experiences that were woven into the training year that I still refer to in my work today,” he said.
The internship year bridges the final gap between doctoral academic training and full-time clinical practice. “As a training consortium, the IU-PIC fills the need of ensuring high-quality training for interns while also reaching communities that would otherwise not have access to such skilled clinicians,” said Kristen Ullrich, Psy.D., executive training director for the consortium and assistant professor in Immaculata University’s clinical psychology doctoral program.
Nursing Clinical Experiences: “I Feel More Prepared Than Ever”
Julia Hallman ’24 completed the final clinical experience for her Bachelor of Science in Nursing by working in a pediatric cardiac stepdown unit at Nemours Children’s Health. At first, she was nervous, but she quickly realized how much she enjoyed the work.
“I’ve learned so much because every single nurse there is so supportive and so helpful,” she said. Hallman began by working under close supervision, and as she progressed, she took on more responsibility, and her assigned nurse allowed her to independently analyze electrocardiogram strips.
“I feel more prepared than ever to become a registered nurse,” Hallman said. “I want to work in pediatrics, and my pediatric clinical confirmed that for me,” she said.
Athletic Training Clinical Experience: Growth in Confidence
As one of the clinical experiences required for her Master of Athletic Training degree, Courtney Floyd ’24 M.A.T. worked with Jessica Gaburo ’11 in outpatient therapy services at Nemours Children’s Health, where she learned to evaluate and treat pediatric patients and athletes after surgery or for strength, conditioning and injury prevention. “I learned how to use biometric tools to assess muscle imbalances, right-to-left-side deficits and gait pattern,” she said.
Floyd said her clinical experience helped her grow as a clinician with guided support, which, in turn, helped her pass her exam to become a certified athletic trainer. Her clinical experience also made her aware of an athletic trainer position within the same health care system. Gaburo served as a reference, and when Floyd interviewed, she felt confident in her knowledge of the job’s responsibilities, even as a recent graduate. She got the offer and began her new job this summer.
Dietetic Internship: Gaining Patients’ Trust and Clinical Information
To earn her M.S. in Clinical Nutrition, Elyse Kusma ’13, ’24 M.S. completed a dietetic internship, which began with shadowing a dietitian at a Philadelphia hospital and learning to practice a range of skills, from calculating patients’ daily calorie and protein needs to gathering clinical information. Kusma observed that the dietitian gained patients’ trust quickly, obtained and documented answers to her questions and educated patients efficiently. “I am working on interviewing with my flow of questions and gaining relevant information,” said Kusma, “remembering more throughout interviews rather than relying on writing everything down.”
Cybersecurity Course Development Partnership
Immaculata not only sends students out to local organizations to gain industry experience, but also brings organizations into the classroom to provide training on current topics. For example, Immaculata collaborates with cybersecurity firm Fortalice Solutions to offer an online course in offensive cybersecurity operations and open-source intelligence. The course, developed and taught by Fortalice cybersecurity practitioners, trains students to use the latest tools, techniques and procedures to understand how hackers operate and to practice exploiting vulnerabilities, evading modern antivirus systems and identifying people within an organization that attackers could target for advanced persistent threats. The course provides fundamentals that prepare students to take the exam to become offensive security certified professionals. Through this partnership, Immaculata supports evolving workforce development needs within the cybersecurity field.
Partnerships With Employers To Offer Tuition Discounts
Immaculata also supports professional development in the community by partnering with more than 20 local organizations to offer tuition discounts to their employees. Partners include the City of Philadelphia, Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health, Wawa, the Pennsylvania National Guard Association, the Philadelphia Police Academy, Recovery Centers of America, SEPTA, Mainline Health, local YMCAs and more. These partnerships help organizations provide further education at an affordable cost for their staff.
For some organizations, Immaculata offers both discounted tuition and on-site classes, saving students money as well as travel time. Suzanne Whitenite ’24, who is in Immaculata’s M.S.N. cohort at Chester County Hospital, said, “It made it so convenient to go back to school. … It was also great to meet and get to know people I may have never had the chance to interact with otherwise.”
Whitenite values the lessons she has learned in the program. “I already feel it is helping in my career, as I was just promoted to the role of assistant clinical manager.”
Partnerships With Other Institutions for Graduate Pathways
Immaculata’s partnerships with graduate programs have grown over the years to include more than a dozen institutions that offer special graduate admissions benefits and time- and tuition-saving pathways for undergraduates who want to continue their education in fields outside of Immaculata’s graduate offerings. Students can earn advanced degrees at these partner institutions in various disciplines, including accounting, law, osteopathic medicine, pharmacy, physical and occupational therapy and speech-language pathology.
One example of a graduate pathway is Immaculata’s agreement with Widener University Delaware Law School. Through this partnership, Immaculata students in a range of majors may earn their bachelor’s degree in three years instead of four and pursue a Juris Doctor with a renewable merit scholarship at Widener. Lexie Bethman ’23 was one of the first students to take advantage of this accelerated graduate pathway and its benefits. “These factors help lessen the financial burden of a law school education and put me on the fast track to a career in law,” she said.
Thanks to thoughtful strategic planning from Immaculata’s faculty and staff, the University’s partnerships are growing and creating a fertile environment for learning. These alliances offer students practical skills, professional connections, and pathways to advanced degrees, ensuring they are well-equipped to achieve their career goals. Looking ahead, Immaculata will continue to nurture its network to support students’ success.
