With the advent of artificial intelligence and automation in the 21st century, career pathways are becoming increasingly competitive and dynamic. These changes will continue to put increasing economic pressure on recent graduates, requiring critical thinking, life-long learning, and global competencies. As powerful drivers of unlocking these and other student outcomes, equitable access to experiential learning opportunities is very important. However, many populations, including those who would benefit most, are disproportionately underserved.

The presentation will begin with a brief literature review, and move to a survey review covering the following:
-Why students participate in experiential learning & high-impact practices
-What types of opportunities students participate in
-How students find these opportunities
-Student views on the value of these opportunities
-Student views on how good a job their institution is doing in helping
-Differences between demographic groups

Motivated by their experiences with these issues, students at Florida State University started Student Opportunity Center (SOC) as a student project. SOC now works with over 150 college campuses nationwide to help increase participation in quality high-impact opportunities by centralizing all available opportunity information and participation data. This allows the uncovering of HIP/EL opportunities, more effective quality control, the matching of students to opportunities, efficient embedding of experiences into the curriculum, and comprehensive participation analysis. This centralization and accompanying data analysis enables institutions to find the “experiential learning deserts”, and take the necessary measures to address the needs of underserved student populations. The session will conclude with several case studies on how some of our partner colleges and universities have adopted our Pathway to 100% initiative to reach previously underserved populations.

The session will engage participants in an interactive discussion on best practices, as well as the role technology can (and must) play in expanding access. A brief Q/A session will follow.