ARP 760
Summer 2012
Jason Allen
San Diego State University
Dr. Frank Harris III
Internship Self-Reflection
My time at Ashford University as an intern was rewarding, challenging, and very enlightening. It is
important to note that I worked (for pay) 20 - 30 hours weekly and was responsible for daily job duties.
In addition, I had to complete my goals and objectives for this internship. My day consisted of fielding
incoming student referral cases regarding instances of academic dishonesty. I was tasked with prepping
those cases, gathering supplemental information, and then determining if the case needed to be
advanced or dismissed. In the end, I would make the appropriate recommendation to management
regarding each individual case.
For the purpose of this reflection, I chose to focus on the academic training module template that I had
to construct for Ashford students who are found guilty of plagiarizing for the first time. When designing
my outcomes and deliverables for my internship program, I approached the director of the Student
Affairs department and asked him if I could design this template. I noticed a pattern of students who
appealed their being found guilty plagiarism on the grounds of not knowing how they committed the
violation. I felt that it was important to establish a training module that addressed this for our students.
Many members of the Ashford student body are adult learners who have either never attended college
before, or who have been removed from the world of academics for a long period of time. Some of
these students may be unfamiliar with the process of proper citation in APA format or what exactly
constitutes plagiarized work. Thus, I felt that a training module should be in place to help train students
so that their first offence of plagiarism, depending on the severity, is responded to with a warning and a
training module to help prevent future occurrences. Prior to my suggesting of the training module, the
ARP 760
Summer 2012
only response that my department had for these first-time offenders was an academic sanction or
disciplinary actions.
My academic training module not only had to meet the requirements of the internship learning artifact
deliverables, but it also have to be thorough so that the department of Student Affairs could use it as
their template for what was to become the official peer reviewed training module. I created a
PowerPoint to serve as this template. The PowerPoint featured everything that was to be featured in
the module and how the module would flow. The PowerPoint was extensive as there was a plethora of
information to be covered. Submitting the work of others, modification of text, copy-paste,
paraphrasing, and submitting purchased material were some of the subjects that I had cover in my
template. To convey the information, I created mock dialogue scenarios between two individuals to
role-play the different scenarios of plagiarism (please see the full PowerPoint presentation attached to
this email for reference).
This project directly related to the learning outcomes identified within this internship program. Through
the completion of this project I was tasked to establish a thorough understanding of university policies
and standards and to be able to communicate that information effectively to students. I had to fully
understand the procedures, policies, and definitions regarding the forms of plagiarism and academic
dishonesty that are identified in Ashford’s academic catalog. This was by far my most time-consuming
and challenging project of my internship program as I had to collaborate with coworkers within my
department as well as outside of my department to ensure that I covered all of the information that
needed to be covered in this module.
I really valued the opportunity to work on this project as it directly relates to my professional goals. I
want to be a leader in student services at a community college or major university. This project showed
me that I can be successful working in this arena and collaborating with student service professionals to
ARP 760
Summer 2012
accomplish a goal. I was able to create the template for a training module that will serve the needs of a
diverse group of students. This is one of the overarching goals of most student affairs departments at
institutions of higher education.
Unfortunately, I do not have any recommendations for improving this course as I was very pleased with
this experience. My internship was fast-paced and demanding as I was virtually a full-time employee. I
was treated as an equal within my department (not as an intern) and I was given a substantial workload.
This experience work so well for me that I was offered a full-time position in Ashford University’s
academics department as a result. While I understand that most of my classmates already had careers in
the field of higher education, this was my first formal experience and I love every second of it and am
now very happy in my new full-time position as an Instructional Specialist with Ashford Academics!