Learn while doing.
Experiential learning means you get out of the classroom and into the real world to put your knowledge into practice through hands-on experiences.
What is experiential learning?
Experiential learning includes:
- community engagement
- internships
- undergraduate research
- global field experiences
- real-world, problem-based learning.
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Sustainability Investigation
In this experiential learning project, students identify a local (or Chesapeake Bay) sustainability-related topic of their choice and conduct a guided investigation into that topic. This includes a required onsite investigation of a local place associated with the issue, ideally with interviews and other research conducted onsite. Students compile a referenced report, including the results of their investigation, and hand it in at the end of the term.
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Internships
Internships are as experiential as it gets; students put their learning into practice through on-the-job training. This photo, shared on Instagram by user @hello_clarisse_, shows "UB students finishing up our internship at Morgan Stanley. So proud of you guys!"
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Alternative Spring Break
During UBalt's Alternative Spring Break: RAIL-ing Against Hunger, students spend a week in Mullens, West Virginia, where they examine the connections between rural poverty and nutrition. Through UBalt's Be More Leadership and Community Engagement program and the Rural Appalachian Improvement League, students take on a powerful community-building and learning experience in a cold, mountainous environment.
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Experiential Learning Showcase
This annual event offers students an opportunity to share their experiential learning projects—including research, projects, internships, study abroad/global field study, community engagement and service learning—during 10-minute presentations to peers, faculty, staff, alumni and parents.
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Divided Baltimore
Divided Baltimore: How Did We Get Here, Where Do We Go? launched in fall 2015 following the unrest in the city the previous spring. With sections designed for undergraduate and graduate experiences, the semester-long course—taught by UBalt faculty members and guest lecturers in both physical and online environments—focuses on addressing the city's long-standing issues regarding segregation, economic and racial inequalities, and untapped potential. The course explores the city's problems and prospects from a variety of perspectives and aims to begin the process of positive change.
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A Bridge to Belize
This annual program promotes learning about cultural diversity and environmental sustainability. A six-week course culminates in an 11-day trip to Belize. Learn more below.
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UB's Community Garden
Cultivated in a green space along the Maryland Avenue exit ramp from I-83 and fully visible from the highway, UBalt's community garden provides an opportunity to learn about urban food deserts while growing herbs and vegetables in planter boxes, a greenhouse and more.
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The Walters Art Museum Fall Family Festival
As an extra-credit assignment for a world history class, student explained the significance of museum artifacts to children visiting during the festival. "My job during the afternoon was to work with the children and even some adults on an arts-and-crafts project. I assisted them in making brooches and decorative pins made out of colorful ribbons and cupcake holders."
— Nijah White, Integrated Arts undergraduate student
Can you give me some examples?
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Experiential Learning Showcase
This annual event offers students an opportunity to share their experiential learning projects—including research, projects, internships, study abroad/global field study, community engagement and service learning—during 10-minute presentations to peers, faculty, staff, alumni and parents.
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Immigrant Rights Clinic
This clinic provides law students with the opportunity to serve as an attorney for one or more clients who need immigration level services. Students spend the semester interviewing and counseling clients and preparing their applications and (sometimes) court cases while also engaging in group work for some broader community needs (creation of pro bono resources, doing legislative reform work, etc.). -
The Entrepreneurial Experience
Students work on a new venture project form the initial idea to a viable business model to be presented publicly at the end of the semester.
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The Inside-Out Prison Exchange
This program is an opportunity for a small group of UBalt students and a group of residents of the Jessup (Maryland) Correctional Institution to exchange ideas and perceptions about crime, corrections and the re-entry process.
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A Bridge to Belize
This program promotes learning about cultural diversity and environmental sustainability. A six-week course culminates in an 11-day trip to Belize. The international-travel experience allows students to investigate ecological and cultural perspectives. Students are immersed in Belizean culture and directly engage with nature by exploring caves, reefs, rivers and rainforests. The program has demonstrated that students who explore nature develop a deeper awareness of sustainability and a greater ability to connect to academic concepts.
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The Homeless Project
This new collaborative initiative between the School of Health and Human Services and the School of Criminal Justice is an applied research opportunity and a service-learning experience and provides a framework for understanding the root causes of homelessness in Central Baltimore.
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Busboys and Poets
Students planned a trip to Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C., to perform their own poems, an opportunity to learn what it's like to express yourself in a public forum before other artists.
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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Sophomore students read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, about a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization and more. The students then researched topics relevant to themes explored in the book.
Services for Faculty
We also consult with faculty to help them integrate experiential learning opportunities into their classes. We:
- mentor faculty involved in experiential learning projects
- communicate and promote experiential learning projects
- liaise with schools, businesses and local government to foster experiential learning opportunities
- plan and coordinate experiential learning activities
- provide research and assessment services
- seek sponsorships and grants
- develop workshops.