Overview of the Field Experience Project
The Fieldwork Project is an opportunity for you to put the skills you have developed throughout your program coursework into practice in a real-life situation.
You will choose one of three options detailed in the course syllabus:
– Option 1: Formal Place-Based Internship
– Option 2: Applied Project in an Organization
– Option 3: Research Project
For this project, you will work with your instructor and your fieldwork supervisor to select a project, develop your goal, and select your activities. You will have access to your instructor and classmates as a resource, should you need as advice as you develop your work. Since this project will test your skills, the goal of your fieldwork should be excellence. However, weaknesses and problems will enhance learning. Both are important. Please review the information outlined below to begin your Fieldwork Project.
The Fieldwork portion of the course requires you to decide, early in the semester, the nature of the project you will complete. You decide what you will learn, but there are some unknowns at the beginning.
You will proceed through this project by following these steps:
1. Locating a site for your project and a field supervisor to work with.
2. Develop the Fieldwork Project Contract Form after deciding what project/issue you will address. This project should use skills taught to you in the HRE courses.
a. The form column of the form should include specific processes you will undertake, HRE courses you will draw upon, and how you will utilize the competencies you developed in the HRE Program. The project needs to encompass two or more program goals from the HRE Program. (Please note: there is flexibility on this requirement of utilizing two or more program goals for those undertaking Option #3.)
b. Include the specific activities you will undertake. This should include a good deal of detail (e.g., develop data collection plan, develop data collection tools, collect data, analyze data, etc.). However, it should be general enough to allow for various options in response to scenarios that might arise (e.g., you may conduct interviews or you may decide they are not necessary).
c. Describe and number the final products you will be producing.
(e.g., Product #2: Data collection tools/processes). Include target dates for completion.
3. Carefully track hours and activities using the Activity Log Spreadsheet.
4. Be sure that your supervisor completes Midterm and Final Fieldwork Performance Evaluation. The evaluation will ask your supervisor to rate your abilities on the HRE Program Competencies, your professionalism, and your completion of agree upon products.
5. Near the end of the semester, your Fieldwork Product should be posted in Blackboard and should be included as one of your ten projects that you post on Livetext.
6. During our last class session, you will conduct a Presentation summarizing the fieldwork.