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Publication Date

2-1-2025

Abstract

Higher education has undergone important shifts over the past two decades, with U.S. universities placing more emphasis on career readiness and internships becoming an integral part of academia (National Association of Colleges and Employers [NACE], 2021). Moreover, the student population in U.S. universities has become more diverse (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2023), which has drawn more attention to issues of equity and access to career readiness initiatives such as internships (Greenman et al., 2022). Disparities exist for students from historically marginalized racial and ethnic communities, such as Black, Latinx, and Afro-Latinx students, from their White peers not only in internships participation but also in world language courses particularly at upper levels of study (Glenn & Wassell, 2018). Furthermore, little is known about internship experiences that require target language use for world language students, notably about minoritized students’ experiences. This position paper summarizes key findings from the literature on internships and career readiness, reports on the disproportionately low number of minoritized students participating in internships and advanced world language study alike and calls for research to be conducted on students’ internship experiences in world language programs, especially for minoritized students.

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