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Data analytics is a rapidly growing field that plays a crucial role in extracting valuable insights from large volumes of data. A data analytics practicum course provides students with hands-on experience in applying data analytics techniques and tools to real-world scenarios. This practicum is intended to serve as a bridge between the student's academic environment and the professional application of their skills in an employment and internship setting. This study examined the design of a data analytics practicum course. The main objectives included (1) the identification of topics and skills employers look for in new hires in data analytics-related internships and entry-level positions, (2) the development and implementation of a Data Analytics practicum course and (3) reflection on the first-time offering of the course and suggested improvements for the next iteration. As part of this study, industry and organization survey responses drove the design of the course and development of key student learning gains for five learning modules throughout the semester. Faculty within the departments of information technology (IT), mathematics, and statistics collaborated in the construction, development, and implementation of team-teaching instructional practices of the Data Analytics Practicum in Spring 2023. This study applies an interdisciplinary approach to data analytics practicum development and instruction.

Capstone experiences (CEs) serve a variety of purposes in higher education as opportunities to apply academic skills, explore post-graduate life and employment, and achieve a meaningful undergraduate event. This study investigated the purposes of CEs through a content analysis of institutional course syllabi/course outlines/module outlines and catalog/calendar descriptions at five institutions of higher education: a large public research university in Canada, a large public teaching university in the United Kingdom (UK), a college of a large public research university in the United States (US), and two medium-sized private liberal arts universities in the US. Using the CE purposes found in a review of scholarly literature as a research guide, the authors analyzed 84 institutional documents. CE purposes that appeared in the sample at lower percentages when compared with published studies included oral communication, a coherent academic experience, preparation for graduate school, preparation for life after college, and civic engagement/service learning. Implications for practice include the need for instructors and administrators to consider revising CE documents to better reflect the content and goals of the courses and to address the requirements of other audiences (e.g., program reviewers, accreditation evaluators). Moreover, the results of this study may assist educators in considering reasons for omitting explicit purposes from CE documents and/or justifying the inclusion of previously omitted purposes.

The educational community is tasked with preparing students for career-ready positions. Aligned with skill development and curriculum content, experiential learning has often proven beneficial for students to reinforce concepts and provide a transfer of learning and application. Internships, prior to graduation, seem to provide a win-win opportunity for the student in the form of real-world, experiential learning. The organization benefits by receiving additional resources at a reduced rate and an opportunity to determine whether the individual will be a good fit for the culture and the position. This paper will seek to explore this relationship to determine whether the outcomes are positive and may lead to increased job offers and quicker employability. In addition, this will include some research on the attributes of students who pursue internships.

The 2009 Professional Development Schools National Conference recognized the professional development school partnership between Pennsylvania State University and State College Area School District for its meritorious partnership work over time and so named it one of the three recipients of the first-ever National Association for Professional Development Schools Award for Exemplary Professional Development School Achievement. This article describes the work of this renowned school-university partnership as it relates to the nine essentials of professional development school work.

This article features the Science Leadership Academy, a new public partnership school in Philadelphia that incorporates core values of inquiry, research, collaboration, presentation, and reflection. Founded by the School District of Philadelphia and The Franklin Institute, SLA is one of four partnership high schools that opened in September 2006 as part of the Secondary Education Movement--one of school district CEO Paul Vallas' major reform efforts. SLA is built on the notion that inquiry is the very first step in the process of learning and provides a rigorous, college-preparatory curriculum with a focus on science, technology, mathematics, and entrepreneurship. The structure of the Science Leadership Academy reflects its core values, with longer class periods to allow for more laboratory work in science classes and performance-based learning in all classes. In addition, students in the upper grades have more flexible schedules to allow for opportunities for dual enrollment programs with area universities and career development internships in laboratory and business settings, as well as with The Franklin Institute. (Contains 5 online resources.)

The health education internship may be a life changing experience that provides students with opportunities to move from the academic world to the professional world. To help students better understand the transition between these two worlds this article will describe the Stages of Internship developed by Sweitzer and King (1994, 1995, 1999) and how this organizational framework for stage management was adapted for use in an undergraduate health education internship program at West Chester University. The Stages of Internship focuses on five predictable stages students encounter during internships. These stages include: anticipation, disillusionment, confrontation, competence, and culmination. The Stages of Internship serves as a framework for identification of each stage as it relates to student development throughout the internship experience. It is important for faculty and internship supervisors to be able to develop strategies to manage each stage during the internship experience and provide students with appropriate guidelines for transitioning through the internship stages. Guidelines are presented on effective stage management strategies and practical knowledge needed to help students understand the stages of change. A greater understanding of the Stages of Internship enables health education professionals to help students build skills to transition successfully from one stage to another therefore providing a strong foundation for future career development. (Contains 3 tables.)

Growing up in Philadelphia, Jenna Moser always wanted to be like her dad, who was a member of FFA and grew up on a farm in western Pennsylvania. She took a big step in emulating her father when she enrolled at the W. B. Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences, and became a member of FFA herself, going on to serve as president during her senior year. She also participated in 4H, the FFA Chorus, and running programs. This article describes how a trip to India to study agricultural process in local villages helped Moser widen the scope of her knowledge and chart a future that includes changing the way a career in agriculture is perceived by young people oversees.

Over the past 50 years, an evolution has occurred in the instruction of wilderness professionals and practitioners within the higher education realm. The National Wilderness Conference, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, provided a timely opportunity to discuss the current and future role of higher education and wilderness among academics and wilderness practitioners. During this conference, directives were released through a vision document, providing a set of shared interagency goals, priorities, and actions to guide future collaborative stewardship of designated wilderness. In this commentary stemming from this conference and aligning with the vision directives, we discuss the role of higher education and wilderness-based curriculum in the historical development of instruction, current academic practices through examples, challenges that should be considered, and suggestions for moving forward to enhance wilderness preservation and professionalism.

The School of Engineering, Mathematics, and Science (SEMS) at Robert Morris University (RMU) was awarded a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund scholarships to 21 academically talented but financially challenged students majoring in the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Each student received a total of $24,000 over their four years of study. This study presents the experiences during years three through five of the grant project. Most importantly, this paper focuses on the experiences and tracking data from this cohort of students during their second, third, and fourth years as college students.

This article presents evaluation findings on an innovative field placement agency that extends the traditional social work internship by incorporating principles of service learning and civic engagement. Qualitative and quantitative student outcome data are presented on the learning experiences of MSW students placed in traditional agency field placements with those placed in a university developed generalist field placement agency. The implications of the findings for social work field education are discussed. (Contains 1 figure and 3 tables.)

Objective: To perform a quality assurance study assessing if hypo- and hyperthyroidism are appropriately screened for in patients with resistant hypertension. Design: Data was collected from patients diagnosed with resistant hypertension, defined as being on four or more different classes of anti-hypertensive medications. These patients were filtered to determine if thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) measurement occurred within 90 days of the addition of a fourth medication class. Setting: Two internal medicine residency clinics in Pittsburgh, PA. Participants: Patients were selected who had a diagnosis of hypertension and were seen in clinic between January 1, 2018 and December 23, 2020. Methods: A single center retrospective review was performed. Results: A total of 1,125 patients were identified as having resistant hypertension. Of these, only 74 patients were found to have a TSH measurement taken within 90 days of having a fourth medication class prescribed. Seven TSH values were found to be abnormal with one patient being diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, demonstrating a screening rate of 6.6%. There were statistically significant differences in age, body mass index, and diastolic blood pressure in those screened versus not. Conclusions: Thyroid disease is under-screened as an etiology for resistant hypertension, particularly given the ease of diagnosis and reversibility of these conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context.--Factors that correlate with success or failure on the American Board of Pathology (ABP) examination are not known. Other medical residency programs have shown that standardized test scores correlate with specialty board examination scores; however, data from pathology programs are lacking. Objective.--To investigate whether the 2-digit score on step 1 of the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) was correlated with ABP examination performance at a large university pathology program. Design.--Nine years of data (2001-2009) from pathology residents (n = 72) at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) was collected from existing files and deidentified. Step 1 USMLE 2-digit scores and ABP failure rates for first-time test takers were compared. Results are reported as the percentage of residents who failed either the anatomic pathology or clinical pathology part of the ABP examination in cohorts by their USMLE 2-digit score (≤80, 81-85, 86-89, ≥90). Results.--The rolling 5-year (2005-2009) ABP average failure rate for first-time test takers of the anatomic pathology examination was 3.1% (UPMC) and 14.1% (nationally); in clinical pathology, it was 13.8% (UPMC) and 23.6% (nationally). At UPMC, no resident failed the anatomic pathology or clinical pathology parts of the ABP examination if his or her 2-digit USMLE step 1 score was 90 or more across 9 years of training (2001-2009). Conclusions.-In the UPMC pathology program, 2-digit scores on USMLE step 1 of 90 or more and 80 or less were strong measures of ABP first-time pass/failure rates, whereas scores of 81 to 89 were less-accurate measures. The USMLE step 1 score is one of many criteria that can be used for screening applicants for a pathology residency program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Features the Longwood Gardens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Information on the Chrysanthemum Festival at the conservatory garden owned by Pierre S. DuPont; Discussion on the goal of the organization in providing horticultural education; Details of continuing education courses and internship programs being offered by the organization. INSET: Mark Finnegan sets out the stages involved in his application....

Objective: To study the attitudes of preclinical and clinical medical students toward the importance of telling patients they are students, and to compare their attitudes with those of patients.Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of medical students from five Philadelphia medical schools, and a longitudinal follow-up in one medical school, to assess the importance students place on telling patients they are medical students before interacting with them. We asked similar questions of 100 general medical outpatients from two academically affiliated hospitals.Main Results: In total, 2,603 students (58%) responded to the cross-sectional survey, 74 (50%) responded to the longitudinal survey, and 100 patients responded to our interview survey (94% response rate). In the cross-sectional survey, there were negligible differences in the importance that patients and medical students placed on informing alert patients that they are interacting with students in nonsurgical settings. In surgical settings involving anesthetized patients, patients placed significantly more importance on being informed of students' roles in their surgery than did students, and preclinical students placed more importance on this than did clinical students. Results from the cross-sectional survey were supported by the longitudinal survey, in which fourth-year medical students placed significantly less importance on informing patients of their student status than the same cohort had done 2 years previously.Conclusions: Medical students place less importance on informing patients about their student status than patients desire, especially in surgical settings in which the patient is to be anesthetized. Medical students already having completed a clinical rotation stray further from patient ideals than preclinical medical students. These findings suggest that, as medical students advance in their training, they suffer an erosion in their attitudes about telling patients they are students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess the impact of two programs at the University of Pittsburgh, one that requires and one that encourages volunteer activity. In the program that requires primary care interns to spend 15 hours in a homeless clinic, we measured volunteer service after the requirement was fulfilled. In the program that encourages and provides the structure for first- and second-year medical students to volunteer, we assessed correlates of volunteering.Measurements and Main Results: When primary care interns were required to spend time at homeless clinics, all (13/13) volunteered to work at the same clinic in subsequent years. Categorical interns without this requirement were less likely to volunteer (24/51; chi2 = 12.7, p >. 001). Medical students who volunteered were more likely to be first-year students, have previously volunteered in a similar setting, have positive attitudes toward caring for indigent patients, and have fewer factors that discouraged them from volunteering (p <. 01 for all) than students who did not volunteer.Conclusions: Volunteering with underserved communities during medical school and residency is influenced by previous experiences and, among medical students, year in school. Medical schools and residency programs have the opportunity to promote volunteerism and social responsibility through mentoring and curricular initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic violence is occurring in epidemic proportions in the United States. Recent surveys have shown there is a need for educational programs for health care professionals. This report presents the results of a domestic violence workshop developed to increase knowledge and improve attitudes and skills in working with victims of domestic violence. The results of the workshop, measured by preintervention and postintervention attitude, knowledge, and skills surveys, are promising. There was a significant improvement in knowledge, self-assessed skills, and attitudes after the workshop. Although the full magnitude of the changes was not sustained over time, there was still significant improvement after 6 months in knowledge and attitude. Rates of detection and documentation did not change. Future educational programs will need to address maintaining routine screening for domestic violence in the primary care setting and to highlight more clearly the role of health care professionals in the detection and treatment of domestic violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the hypotheses that there is a tendency for students to improve academically and to realize more fully the value of communication skills following their participation in an internship program. Participants in The Pennsylvania State University's 23-year-old program were used to test these hypotheses. Penn State has a large program with a wide geographical representation. Last winter 78 interns were placed among 16 firms in 19 locations. Altogether 45 offices were represented. Internship programs are part of the academic curriculum at an increasing number of schools. They provide an efficient way to involve students in real live situations. Students can apply and reinforce their classroom knowledge. Their periodic reviews help them to better understand their strengths and weaknesses. They can evaluate competing employment opportunities before making a permanent commitment. They show that there is a tendency for both accounting and general grades to improve following an internship.

A personal narrative is presented which explores the author's experience of being assigned in Twillingate, Canada and Latrobe, Pennsylvania for rural family medicine training and exposure.

Focuses on the internship program of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia. Exposure of the interns to practical aspects of managing archaeological and ethnographic collections; Involvement of interns on the relocation of ethnographic objects; Creation of life-size masks replicating objects in collections.