Please call 717-780-2433 or email careerservices@hacc.edu.

An experiential learning opportunity is any educational activity or experience that results in learning outside of the classroom environment that permits you to apply your learned skills to real-life situations.

Experiential learning opportunities offer students and organizations a variety of exciting ways to connect with each other at HACC either virtually or in-person as permitted. These opportunities include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Informational interviews
• Job shadowing
• Mock interviews
• Career mentoring activities
• Internships, practicums, co-ops and field experiences
• Research projects
• Service learning
• Studio performances

College Central Network (CCN) is HACC’s Career Services platform. CCN provides you with a variety of career services tools and resources. You are given a free student CCN account that lasts for your lifetime. Once you have started classes at HACC, you will be able to activate your student CCN account.

You are urged to activate your HACC student CCN account during your first semester in order to:

• View and register for HACC’s Career Services events, including experiential learning opportunities workshops, career and internship fairs career conversations, lessons from leaders and more.
• Search for an experiential learning opportunity.
• Search for internships, practicums, co-ops, field experiences, student employment, and work study through HACC or the national platform boards.
• Search through videos, podcasts and documents for topics such as how to tie a gentleman’s tie, interview tips and more!
• Create an e-portfolio to get an edge over other applicants

CCN Benefits workshops are offered every semester. Join us to the learn about the career resources and tools within CCN that will help you. 

View video transcript (pdf)

An informational interview is now your time to be the interviewer! This is your chance to learn more about the career path for which you have an interest or the major you have chosen.

Experiential learning workshops on informational interviewing are offered every semester. Please visit the Career Services Events calendar for more information or email careerservices@hacc.edu to schedule an experiential learning appointment. 

Job shadowing allows a student to explore a “day in the life” of a career professional either in-person or virtually. Job shadowing experiences can range from a few hours, to a half day, full day, or multiple days, depending on the permission of the career professional and their organization.

A mock interview is a chance to practice your interviewing skills and receive feedback on what you did well and areas in which you can improve. Mock interviews may be conducted with a HACC employee or career professional in your program or major of interest or one in which you are interested.

While HACC doesn't have an official Mentoring Program, there are career professionals who donate their time to mentor HACC students with any number of career experiences, such as doing informational interviews. Career professionals may also donate their time to HACC for other services, such as speaking engagements.

An internship is another type of experiential learning that provides you with the opportunity to supplement your in-class learning with practical, real-world workplace experiences. Depending on your major or program, the experience may be called by one of several names, such as an internship, clinical, co-op, externship, field experience or a practicum. “The HACC Student’s Guide to Internship Planning” (pdf) will introduce you to HACC’s various programs that have a corresponding internship component and the faculty who can answer your questions about that program’s experience.

Capstone

• A capstone is a course that helps a student prepare to enter the workforce by allowing the student to apply knowledge and skills learned in prior courses by completing an experiential learning activity that is project based, either simulated or from a real-time client/customer request. This experience should be presented on your resume. You will have portfolio projects to present to potential employers.
   

Internship

• An internship is a real-world, immersive experiential learning opportunity that that helps a student prepare to enter the workforce by allowing the student to apply knowledge and skills learned in prior courses. The internship can occur in the following formats: in-person, remote-virtual or as a blended opportunity – meaning you may meet in-person a set, predetermined number of times and work remotely/virtually. Regardless of the internship format you are interacting with supervisors, clients/customers and other interns just as you would in an employment work-place setting. This experience should be presented on your resume. You will have portfolio projects to present to potential employers.

Once you have chosen a major, completed prerequisite courses in your major, or identified a career field of interest in which you want to do an internship, you will want to create your search plan. Our "HACC's Internship Proces and How to Create an Internship Search Action Plan” workshop is offered every semester. 

• Google - This search engine can assist in your search. Just key in your search terms such as “internships in...” then add the town, city or company in which you have an interest.
• CollegeGrad - This established website allows you to search for internships by title, industry and location. It also is a valuable resource for entry-level employment.
• YouTern - This website allows you to create a profile that will match you with internships related to your criteria.
• TheMuse - This website is great for the next generation to research companies and careers, as well as networking.

• Idealist.org - This website allows you to search for internships in nonprofit public organizations and agencies by location, major, organization name and industry.
• NetImpact.org - This website allows you to search for internships in grassroots global movements, such as sustainability and corporate social responsibility and governance.
• WorkforGood.org - This website allows you to connect with and search for internships with mission-driven organizations, such as human rights, civil rights, children’s rights and environmental conservancy.
• Volunteer and Services Learning - US Department of Education - The U.S. Department of Education promotes various national volunteer and service learning programs, some of which may qualify for student loan forgiveness.
• Volunteer Match - This website allows you to match yourself with a cause of your passion.

County Websites

Below are county government websites where you can find information for various county departments along with internship opportunities in a variety of ways: directly by internship name, via that county’s department or via the employment opportunities section.

• Adams County  
• Cumberland County 
• Dauphin County 
• Franklin County 
• Juniata County 
• Lancaster County 
• Lebanon County 
• Mifflin County 
• Perry County 
• Schuylkill County 
• York County 

State Websites

• Commonwealth of Pennsylvania – This website is a source for internship opportunities within Pennsylvania’s agencies and departments.
• PA Career Link - This site is for Job Seekers which includes students searching for internships and apprenticeship opportunities. There are also videos to watch about these opportunities with the Commonwealth.

Federal Websites

• Career One Stop – This website is a source for internship information within agencies and departments in the federal government.
   

Once you have nailed the internship interview, been offered the internship, accepted the internship offer and have the internship approved by your program’s faculty lead, join Kathleen Dormer Carusone, HACC’s internship and experiential learning opportunities coordinator, for the “How to Succeed on YOUR Internship!” workshop offered every semester. 

Career and internship fairs are events in which representatives from employers and internship sites visit HACC in person and virtually to speak to HACC students about their organization's employment and internship opportunities for which students can apply. HACC holds these fairs during the spring semester. For more information:

• Students, please reach out to HACC Career Services at careerservices@hacc.edu or sign in to your student CCN account for career and internship fair and experiential learning event information.
• Employers with internship opportunities who want to participate in these events must register for their FREE employer account on College Central Network (please visit the Employer Services page for the CCN information for employers). Then, once your registration is approved, you may request to post internship and experiential learning opportunities in the system.
• If you have a specific interest in attending career and internship fairs at or with HACC, please email careerservices@hacc.edu so you can be connected to our Employer Partnership Team.

A “How to Create an Internship Search Action Plan” workshop and other related workshops are offered every semester. 

A research project as an experiential learning opportunity could include doing research for an organization in your chosen major or program or for an organization in which you have an interest. For example, a HACC student interested in life science may want to work on a project involving environmental science or water conservation. That student would reach out to a relevant organization, such as the Susquehanna River Basin Commission, to ask if they can connect to assist with that kind of project.

Service learning is usually a short-term experience and is often developed in conjunction with a particular course. Sometimes, however, it may be an experience by itself that isn't part of a specific course. Students typically perform a set duration of work as part of a particular project and then develop a report or presentation on the experience.

Examples of service learning include, but aren't limited to, the following:

• Tutoring other students and adults
• Conducting art, music or dance lessons for youth
• Giving presentations on violence and drug prevention
• Helping in a homeless shelter
• Creating life reviews for hospice patients

Studio performances at HACC typically relate to majors in the performing arts, but may include other majors, such as the Music Business Program. Students get to practice what they have learned with the studio becoming both the classroom and the workplace setting. For example, in the Music Audio and Recording Technology Program, you may explore various ways to record music. Studio performance allows you to get “live” time to lay down tracks and fully immerse yourself in that experience.

If you want to learn more about studio performances and how you can prepare for such a project, please contact the faculty lead for that particular program, read “The HACC Student’s Guide to Internship Planning” and make an appointment with Kathleen Dormer Carusone, HACC’s internship and experiential learning opportunities coordinator, by emailing careerservices@hacc.edu.

Career Conversations are events where you meet employers at HACC, either virtually or in person, who discuss their organizations and potential career pathways and/or various career topics by major/program. These events are offered in both the fall and spring semesters. 

Volunteerism is a wonderful way for students to build work experience and help an organization. Please note that the Fair Standards Labor Act does prohibit volunteerism in the for-profit/private sector; however, volunteerism is permitted for public sector, nonprofit, and religious organizations. You may choose to volunteer for a cause or interest of importance to you, but also note that HACC doesn't have an official volunteering program for students.