Experiential learning is an important component of the undergraduate program at CI. Students participate in a wide variety of IT projects and internships that prepare them to enter the workforce while also serving unmet needs in our community.

Why Does Experiential Learning Matter?

The nature of Experiential Learning is different in IT. As in Medicine, the stakes are high. Intense mentoring and supervision are required in order to create a high-quality experience for both student and sponsor. Because many non-profit, community-based organizations do not have the resources to provide the necessary oversight, CI provides faculty mentors who have the industry experience and expertise to guide and supervise the student’s work.

Through Experiential Learning, students acquire technical skills and workplace habits that cannot be learned in the classroom Projects and Internships help students understand the realities of various IT career choices Students gain confidence in their knowledge, skills and abilities/ Most employers prefer to hire workers with experience - and many consider our program an opportunity to "try before they buy"

How does Experiential Learning Work?

There are a variety of ways students participate in experiential learning at CI:

  • Practicum - LIS4941: The Practicum is focused on helping the students develop hands-on, practical technology and people skills in settings supervised closely by CI Faculty.
  • IT Project - LIS4910: One of two capstone courses, IT Project helps our students understand the differences between doing a project and managing a project. Projects may be supervised by CI faculty or the sponsor.
  • Directed Independent Study(DIS) : Students work one-on-one with both a sponsor and a faculty mentor to acquire and extend skills acquired in the Practicum or IT Project — often these students will remain with their Practicum or Project sponsor to continue the work started in a prior semester.
  • Internships: Students who have reached an appropriate level of technical and professional maturity are placed in entry-level technical positions with local business, government and non-profit organizations.

Work experiences include:

  • Refurbishing computers for distribution to economically disadvantaged families and the agencies that serve them
  • Managing servers and network infrastructure and providing help desk and technical support services
  • Providing website development services to a variety of non-profit agencies
  • Providing Help Desk services and support

The current list of active projects is available on the Project SPARTA wiki.

Project SPARTA Brochure (PDF)

Experiential Learning Presentation (GoogleDoc)