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View from the Hill
Experiential Education at UNH:
When the World is Your Classroom
The University of New Haven is taking the classroom out of the building, and the students into the field. UNH students are availing themselves of internships, research opportunities, and community service that bring them into contact with scientists, businesspeople, professional engineers, authors and more. Experience combined with education—aka experiential education—is moving UNH students into the future equipped to succeed.
Amy Desmarais ‘08
Summer Internship in Mexico Gave Sport Management Major
A New Perspective on Work and Culture
Working with rally-car drivers in Mexico and planning poker night fundraisers is not the stuff of a typical student summer. But for Amy Desmarais ’08, who is specializing in Sport Management in the College of Business, her summer internship in Mexico allowed her a view of how the real world works, far from the University’s classrooms in West Haven.
After hearing about an opportunity from a UNH friend to work with the Xinantecatl Automovil Club in Mexico, Desmarais took advantage of an internship that would allow her to live in Mexico for five weeks. It infected her with a travel bug to which she has fully succumbed, and gave her a chance to use knowledge gleaned from her coursework.
She registered competitors for races, recorded race times, helped with paperwork and sponsorships, and planned fund-raisers. That included presenting a proposal – in Spanish – to club members for a ‘La Noche de Poker’ or poker night.
The chance to travel to another country, and culture, was also a big lure. “I thought it was a great chance to get some experiential learning in an entirely different environment than what I’m used to,” she said. “I was able to get my hands on some real-world applications of what I’ve been learning, and have the opportunity to stay in another country too.”
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