Business interns' experiences partnering with a nonprofit entrepreneurial foundation: exploring service-learning, high impact practice pedagogy

Internships are by design experiential, high impact learning opportunities, and many institutions of higher education include the completion of internship requirements prior to graduation. Business students completing internships generally do so at corporate offices, accounting firms, and other traditional for-profit business entities. The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of university undergraduate students enrolled in an internship program working with a nonprofit foundation (Launch HOPE Foundation) supporting nascent entrepreneurs, using high impact practices and a version of service-learning pedagogy. The following research question was examined: How do undergraduate university students experience their internship partnership with the Launch Hope Foundation including their face-to-face interactions with community partners as they are learning to be business collaborators and nascent entrepreneurs? The study participants’ experiences were examined through a social constructivist lens; social constructivists believe learning is a social process and people create meaning through their interactions with each other. The findings of this study for business students engaged in service learning, high impact practices include personal transformation, hard and soft skill development, and career development. Furthermore, this research supports high impact, service-learning pedagogy for business schools in designing internships. These appropriately designed courses can help business schools meet the social impact goals of institutions, governments, policymakers, and accreditation organizations as they focus on corporate social responsibility and accrediting agencies societal impact requirements.