About Immersion Experiences
Learn the basics of the immersion experience.
An immersion is a deep dive - it engulfs you and, in the context of an experience, it provides you with a great opportunity to reflect, learn and grow. In life you'll have many many immersion experiences - both short and long. With the immersion experience we ask you to prototype your future through an internship, a summer job, service learning, research, travel, or development of an entrepreneurial idea—and turn it from an item on your checklist to an exploration of your future.
Your immersion experience is learning-by-doing, it will be both deep and broad. The experience must be of sufficient depth that you become familiar with the culture of the organization/community that you are involved with, and sufficiently broad that you spend time allowing the culture to impact you and inform your world view.
Examples
- Volunteer with a food bank and learn more about supply chain management and how to lead a volunteer staff
- Observe how large companies adapt to an ever-changing marketplace during an internship
- Work with your honors advisor to explore the management techniques you encounter during a co-op. What works? What doesn't?
- Study abroad and reflect on how the program helps you integrate into a new culture
Why do we include the immersion experience component?
Your immersion plan and reflections will help you optimize the lessons learned about the experience, i.e., what skills and abilities come naturally for you? What do you need to work on? What could you see yourself doing in the future? What do you want to avoid? The goal is to provide you with a practical opportunity to ensure that your studies, career goals, and aspirations are aligned.
Time commitment
We recommend 50 hours immersed in your new context, spread out over several weeks. (You may include preparation for a more intense immersion, such as pre-departure for a week-long immersion in another culture.)
The time/effort used as your Immersion component may not be applied to other components of the Pavlis Honors Pathway.