Tracking Effect of Engaged Learning Practicum on Graduates’ Self-Authorship as Changemakers

As a Faculty Fellow in Engaged Scholarship, Anke Wessels is surveying students who have taken her Social Entrepreneurship Practicum Course two and five years post-graduation to discover whether and how the confidence they gained from the practicum informed their personal, professional and civic engagement as change makers. The study follows on a 2021 paper Wessels co-authored with students, “Fostering Self-Authorship and Changemaking: Insights from a Social Entrepreneurship Practicum,” which was published in Experiential Learning and Teaching in Higher Education.

Wessels is also taking on a secondary research project about the importance of compensating people with the expertise that comes with having lived experience. While funders, planners, government officials and researchers are often supportive of compensating for this expertise, the labor laws governing how to compensate work are not conducive to doing so. Wessels plans to co-write a white paper with community members that could become an op-ed piece, opinion piece or blog that serves as the basis for a public campaign to raise awareness and call for creative solutions.