Strategy:  Expand research, internship and international experiences for undergraduates.

Point People:  Fred Wood and Winston Ko

Narrative Summary of Third Year Implementation Efforts:

In both the areas of internships and international experiences, UC Davis has dedicated offices with staff and faculty resources in place to serve students.  Our Internship and Career Center (ICC) continued its emphasis and leadership among internship programs system-wide.  It consistently places the highest total number of internship placements, combined domestic and international, and has the greatest diversity of opportunities in the area of experiential education throughout the UC system.  Even with the economic downturn at the state and federal levels, employer participation in the various career fairs increased by 5% this past year.  Student participation in internships is broad and diverse, including financial aid recipients, students from ethnically underrepresented groups, and an impressive number of science majors.  With support from the Vice Provost - Undergraduate Studies, the ICC reinstituted the UC Davis Travel Grant Program to offset students’ costs for participation and to subsidize international internships, particularly for non-profit organizations.  Through ICC’s coordination of the Human Corps program and the Bonner Leader Program, the campus continued to extend leadership to the broader community by engaging its students, staff, and student organizations in community service.

The Education Abroad Center (EAC) continues to expand international educational opportunities through the UC Education Abroad Program and the campus-based programs (Summer Abroad and Quarter Abroad), as well as in its collaborations with other campus units, such as the Internship and Career Center and associations outside the university.  The 2005 Chancellor’s Fall Conference, “Internationalizing the UC Campus,” resulted in several recommendations including a new GE requirement in Global Citizenship (currently under GE task force review), increased integration of education abroad credit into majors, and setting a goal to provide an “off-campus” international experience to all students.  With increased attention, overall student participation in international educational experiences increased by approximately 40%.

Aligned with the strategic plan, Undergraduate Studies continued to facilitate discussion with the various campus constituencies on the establishment of a centralized Center for Excellence in Undergraduate Research, Creative Activities & Scholarship.  The proposed vision for the center is to provide leadership, coordination, and visibility of undergraduate research as an enhancement to undergraduate education.  “Best practices,” were found in the investigation of model centers within and outside the University of California. These then informed and guided discussions with the campus leadership which included the undergraduate deans and faculty they invited to participate in these discussions, Academic Senate leadership, Graduate Studies, Student Affairs, Office of Research, and the Library.  Collectively, their reaction demonstrated exceptional enthusiasm for a future Center and generated excellent recommendations for additional functions the Center could assume to support the faculty’s participation in expanding and sponsoring opportunities for undergraduate research.  A complete proposal, reflecting the collective interests of the campus constituents, was submitted for consideration to the Office of the Provost during Spring 2006.  However, this proposal will need to be evaluated in the context of the 2007 budget.

Advances and Ongoing Programs Consistent With Strategy:

Undergraduate Research

• Submitted campus proposal for future Center for Excellence in Undergraduate Research, Creative Activities & Scholarship in April 2006.
• Continued to support growth in the UC Davis 17th Annual Conference on Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities, resulting in a 16% increase and an all-time record in the number of students presenting their projects; 235 students in 2006 compared to 204 in 2005. 
• Overall level of participation in President’s Undergraduate Fellowship and Summer Undergraduate Fellowship programs remained constant, although there was growth in participation among the humanities and social sciences to the extent that submissions by discipline had become equalized. New to these programs was the expectation that award recipients present their work at the annual undergraduate research conference.
• Office of the Vice Provost – Undergraduate Studies continued collaboration and/or support of department/college extramural grant initiatives that included a significant undergraduate research component.  Examples include,
• NSF proposed – “Northern California Undergraduate Research Center in the Chemical Sciences”
• NSF proposed – “Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Recruiting, Advising, and Mentoring Program” (STEM-RAMP)
• NSF proposed - "Improving the Learning Experience in Introductory STEM Courses in a Large Research University"
• On behalf of the national Reinvention Center, UC Davis hosted a regional meeting focused on undergraduate research. This meeting was well attended by representatives from throughout the region and the discussion allowed for the creation of a list of “best practices”.  This discussion also informed the proposal for a Center for Excellence in Undergraduate Research, Creative Activities and Scholarship at UC Davis.

International Opportunities

• Student participation in study abroad programs administered by the Education Abroad Center increased by 38% from 884 students in 2004-05 to 1221 in 2005-06.
• Enrollment in Summer Abroad in 2006 increased by 43%, providing UC Davis and non-UC Davis students educational opportunities in 28 programs and 23 countries.
• Continued growth of our UC Davis Faculty-lead Quarter Abroad programs in 8 countries with a new program directed toward science majors.
• Middle East and South Asia Studies program, with support from the Office of  University Outreach and International Programs, competed successfully for the US Department of Education’s Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Languages Program’s sponsorship to enhance its curriculum to include Arabic and Hindi/Urdu language instruction, conferences, seminars and support for new courses development.
• Continued expansion of less commonly taught languages in cooperation with Sacramento City College (i.e., Korean, Cantonese, Tagalog, Farsi, and Vietnamese).
• The campus hosted, in November 2005, its fourth International Education Week, with a series of events (e.g., panels, speakers, workshops and an inaugural Student Fair attended by over 700 students and faculty) to expand intercultural understanding and awareness of international research and education opportunities.
• Outreach and International Programs collaborated with Undergraduate Studies to bring two Fulbright Graduate Students as Scholars in residence to the Leadership Learning Community at The Colleges at La Rue for 2006-07. 

Internships and Career Placements

• Developed a new internship program for Fall 2006 in Oaxaca, Mexico that will accommodate 36 diverse student placements, including an impressive number of science majors.
• Student participation in international internships for 2005-06 was 121.
• Reinstituted UC Davis Travel Grant Program to subsidize international internships, in wide range of countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Examples of placements include
• Global and Gender Issues Program in Romania
• Foundation for International Education in London, England
• Good Samaritan Medical Ministry in Vietnam
• US Mission to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Department of State, Paris, France.
• ICC developed a Pre-Departure Handbook for safe travel abroad that has been well received by students interested in international internships. 
• ICC staff worked closely with the Diplomat in Residence, currently assigned to the Berkeley campus, to facilitate contact with students interested in state, federal and international experience and career opportunities.
• ICC continued its close collaboration with the Education Abroad Center to provide jointly sponsored events.
• Total number of (domestic & international) internships in 2005-06 was 6,189; in 2004-05 the number was 6,232.
• The number of workshops, symposia, and presentations held steady for 2005-06 at 460 relative to 452 programs presented last year.
• Advising contacts continued to soar, particularly in the area of electronic communication, and surpassed the more than 47,000 contacts in the previous year.
• Hosted six career fairs during 2005-06 (cross discipline and discipline specific) with more than a 5% increase in participation among employers compared to the previous year, and attracting more than 8,000 students.
• Career Recruiting Programs upgraded Aggie Job Link, an electronic system for student and employer enrollment in the on-campus interviewing process, and for posting internship and career positions.  As a result,
• The number of companies visiting campus to recruit students increased dramatically from 282 in 2005-06 compared to 173 companies in 2004-05 (a 63% increase).
• Student participation in the system increased with a total of 3,863 resumes submitted for consideration by recruiting companies.
• The number of approved career vacancies posted through Aggie Job Link in 2005-06 remained high at a total of 3,946.
• Human Corps continued to flourish with over 80,500 hours of community service recorded, and many of the sites were classified as internships.
• The UC Davis Washington program remains the largest program among the UCs, and placed a total of 159 students from a wide variety of majors into Washington, DC internships during 2005-06.
• UC Center Sacramento, now in its third year, included 36 UC Davis students in 2005-06, a substantial increase from 5 students last year.

Short Statement of Plans for 2006-07:

• Pending campus approval, implement a new campus-wide Center for Excellence in Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity.
• Establish a campus protocol for student-run undergraduate research journals and similar publications.
• Begin discussions of ways to facilitate the process by which students can easily obtain units for undergraduate research undertaken during the summer.
• Continue extensive publicity for research, internship and international experiences.
• Continue outreach to humanities and arts faculty to increase the number of students pursuing creative work and who participate in the campus’s annual Conference on Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity.
• Encourage faculty with research grants to request additional dollars to support undergraduate researchers (e.g., NSF-REU).
• Arabic and Punjabi languages are in the pipeline as future course offerings in cooperation with Sacramento City College.
• Continue to look for permanent travel funds to maintain the momentum for continued growth in international internships.
• Work with UC Davis faculty to expand and diversify course offerings with an international emphasis which can meet graduation requirements.
• Expand the model undertaken by the Economics Department http://www.econ.ucdavis.edu/undergraduates_eap.cfm to identify course offerings at EAP host countries that integrate with major requirements in the departments, especially in the sciences and engineering.
• Launch a Study and Intern Abroad Fair for Fall 2006 to increase student awareness of international opportunities.
• Expand Pacific Rim e-learning collaborations and course offerings in engineering and the humanities.

Evaluation of Metrics:

Both the ICC and the EAC maintain careful records of their participation, making it relatively easy to determine how many students are engaged in their activities.  It is much more difficult to determine the numbers of undergraduate student researchers. One might count the number of independent study courses in which students enroll, but we have learned that not all of these are research-related, and conversely, students aren’t always enrolled in courses while engaged in undergraduate research. Also, many students, particularly in the social sciences, humanities, and the arts don't self-identify undergraduate research experiences. In addition to this being a systemwide concern, this will also be a key component of our activity for next year as we look forward to implementing the future Center for Excellence in Undergraduate Research, Creative Activities & Scholarship.  This will entail working closely with Office of Student Affairs Research Information, the Internship and Career Center, and the Office of Resource Management and Planning.