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| Dr. Andre Thorne, Director of UAA's Multicultural Center |
As defined by Hahn and Hatcher (2015), however, HIPs reflect “active and intensive learning experiences that have the potential to promote substantial learning opportunities for college students." According to their research, experiences signifying as “substantial learning opportunities” include, among others, diversity and global learning, capstone courses, service learning and community-based learning, and undergraduate research.
And while these opportunities might prove obvious pursuits or par for the course for some overly-driven or specifically-advantaged students pursuing an undergraduate pursuit, HIPs are not nearly as utilized or sought out by students who reportedly stand to most benefit from them.
Dr. Andre Thorne, the director of UAA’s Multicultural Center, could not have been introduced to this burgeoning approach in education at a better time. On one hand, as a field increasingly backed by significant data and research and now referred to as “a core strategy” for reaching desired teaching outcomes in liberal education, it would seem the case for HIPs proves obvious enough to warrant strong consideration among educators.
However, in Dr. Thorne’s work, and given the focus of his energies in the MCC, HIPs also boast significant gains for the students frequenting the center, as well as those he teaches in his Guidance courses.
"The research shows that traditionally underserved students – these are the students of color, students from other countries – essentially the students we serve in the MCC,” he describes, “they report the greatest benefits of high-impact practices and course work. But the research also shows that these populations utilize HIPs and service-learning opportunities much less than traditionally-advantaged students.”
Dr. Thorne understands why this often proves the case for students attending UAA – and especially those who make use of the MCC – the majority of whom are commuting to school from a diverse array of circumstances and family situations that students living, for example, in a traditional dormitory setting at a four-year university may never encounter or need to consider as they work towards their education and career goals.
“At UAA, we have to do things very differently in order get students to hang around campus,” he acknowledges. “A typical student at UAA pulls up to campus in a car and hangs out in there and looks at the phone or textbooks till it’s time to go to class. When class is over, that student packs it up and drives home or heads to work.”
“If the challenge for us at UAA is to engage students at this level, we’ve got to learn to do things very differently if we’re going to help them become active and excited about learning opportunities we’re striving to provide for them here.”
He pauses.
“We almost have to grab them,” he laughs, “grab them and tell them, ‘Get out of your car! Come in here! Grab some snacks and get some food and let’s learn something while you’re here.”
And so, the MCC works hard to welcome and accommodate those accessing the center, providing them with all the amenities a student could need in order to be convinced to stick around, to linger for a little bit. Individuals utilizing the MCC’s space find they can work on papers or other school work in the center’s computer lab. The student who needs a pick-me-up can swing in and grab a snack or cup of coffee. Or, they can sit quietly at a table and attend to assignments as necessary, or just sit still and catch a breather from the unending, bustling goings on in the life of a commuting undergraduate student.
Dr. Thorne is quick to note, however, that stimulating students’ interest in community-based learning opportunities or community-engaged course work takes a lot more than a basket of granola bars or free coffee. It’s not as if once you’ve lured students to linger around campus with snacks and a work space, you’ve inevitably fostered new, previously unforeseen opportunities for deep-learning.
“Nothing – nothing – happens to propel our multicultural students forward if we don’t foster relationships with them,” he urges, “and that always requires that we build trust with the students who find their way to us.”
This can prove a challenge, he shares, describing that the typical student passing through the MCC is often already often juggling a couple classes and working one or maybe two jobs. Dr. Thorne credits the MCC center’s staff for the ways they manage to connect with their students and to present opportunities that otherwise might elude them.
“There’s a vital learning component that takes place, for example,” he reflects, “once you ask students to reflect on their experiences – to tell us their stories.” Once the personal connection is made between a student’s lived experiences and what they hope to accomplish by attending the university, Dr. Thorne and his staff find that the window to offer MCC students possibilities and directions they haven’t previously considered or heard about widens considerably.
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| An MCC student making a presentation with her E-portfolio. |
“When I started in this position in 2011,” he recalls, “I was surprised by the number of students of color who had never been outside of Anchorage. Even if they had grown up in Alaska or moved here at a young age, in many cases they’d never pushed past the city limits.”
This recognition – and, more recently, all he’s learned from HIPs research - compelled Dr. Thorne and his staff to find opportunities for MCC students to “get out of Anchorage and into Alaska.”
“Most recently, we’ve established partnerships with the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, as well as the Student Conservation Association, and more." These organizations and offices will come in and tell us about internships and summer job opportunities with the students that many of them never knew were open to them or even on the table for consideration.
As opportunities in service learning and community-engagement go, you perhaps can’t find a more engaging form of high impact practice than offering a student who’s never seen Alaska outside of Anchorage an opportunity to step into work experiences they’d otherwise never imagined possible.
“You drive five minutes outside of Anchorage and you begin to have a very different experience and understanding of Alaska,” Dr. Thorne offers, continuing, “And when they come back sharing the artifacts from their work experience or internships with our partners in their e-portfolios – pictures of eagles, moose, and salmon and all their stories – you become aware that these students are sharing and engaging in opportunities they never would have experienced if these weren’t made available to them.
And given the life-changing opportunities that may await them, Dr. Thorne and his staff can't imagine a more compelling reason to continue encouraging students to walk the short distance from the UAA parking lot and through the doors of the MCC to pay them a visit.
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| MCC students working on their E-portfolios. |
