Empowering Students to Recognize and Foster More Inclusive Workplaces

This session will outline how community colleges can empower their students to recognize, request, and foster more inclusive workplace practices.

Session participants will learn about practical tools developed through a community college-industry partnership to strengthen the working relationship between student interns and their internship mentors. This includes tools to help establish better training protocols, make workplace expectations more explicit, identify knowledge gaps and/or misunderstandings, and learn how to give and receive feedback so as to build greater trust and engagement.

After this session participants will be able to:

• Describe inclusive workplace practices and how they foster engagement and productivity
• Outline how non-inclusive practices can prevent success and retention of community college students in the workplace
• Describe multiple tools/strategies students can use to recognize, request and foster more inclusive workplaces
• Incorporate 1-2 tools/strategies in their courses/programs that students can use to recognize, request and foster more inclusive workplaces