Announcing the Final Examination of Jessica Wickey Byrd for the degree of Doctor of Education
Internships provide a platform for students to apply theoretical knowledge in a practical setting and to gain hands-on experience (Simons et al., 2012). Moreover, internships can help students build networks and connections within their chosen industry, which can later prove valuable in their career development. This qualitative exploratory study investigated students’ perceptions of their hospitality and tourism internships on how they perceive their career pathways after completing an internship in a four-year degree program. For this study, a group of Junior and Senior hospitality and tourism university students from a major university were interviewed. The researcher utilized a phenomenological approach to analyze the data in an effort to best understand their lived experiences and perceptions. This was further contextualized under the theoretical framework of Transformational Leadership Theory (Northouse, 2019) to help elucidate the students’ perceptions of their internships on their career pathways. From this analysis process, four themes emerged from their perceptions: 1) Servant Leadership, 2) mission and vison alignment, 3) mentors, and 4) connection of learning. This study addressed the gap in the current literature of transformational leadership and college students’ perceptions of their career pathways after completing an internship by understanding how the 4i’s of idealized influence and charisma, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration are positively or negatively perceived A key finding of the study was that students perceptions of their career pathways were positive in both transformational and transactional internships, and only differed in the 4i’s constructs.
Committee in Charge:
Dr. Devon Jensen (Chair)
Dr. Nancy Marshall
Dr. Amanda Wilkerson
Dr. Carissa Baker
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