Most colleges say they do experiential learning. Alex Hernandez can tell you exactly what separates the ones that mean it.

Alex is president of Champlain College, a small career-focused school in Burlington, Vermont, where students start taking classes in their major on day one — not junior year. The model is built on a simple premise: experience is part of the education, not a bonus you might get around to.

Alex Hernandez has spent his career thinking about how education creates opportunity. His father was a farm worker; his first job was on Wall Street. For 20-plus years, he's been working on what it takes to make that kind of leap accessible to more students. He came to Champlain because it was doing that — deliberately, not by accident.

What we cover:

• Champlain's upside-down curriculum — why students start their major on day one, and what that makes possible for internships and career exploration in year one
• How the curriculum works for students who don't know what they want yet, including a Lego-block model that lets students combine and remix across majors
• What a campus-based internship actually looks like — and why it's a meaningful bridge experience
• The recent curriculum redesign: Flex 30 credits, interdisciplinary studios, and co-ops that let students earn and learn without delaying graduation
• What families should actually ask when a college claims to do experiential learning — and which statistics to push on
• Why work-integrated learning is harder to build than it sounds, and what it takes to do it in a way that sticks

What Parents Should Ask:

• Does experiential learning happen at the core of the program, or at the fringes?
• What percentage of your graduating class do you actually survey for employment outcomes?
• What is the school doing to help students access internships — or are students on their own to find them?

Connect with Alex

Champlain College website: https://www.champlain.edu/

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhernandez/

Connect with Ringae

Book a complimentary discovery call: https://cal.com/waysmith/discovery-call

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Visit my website: https://waysmith.io/

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ringae/

A graduate with an internship doubles their odds of having a good job at graduation — and doubles their odds of being engaged in their work for the rest of their career. So why do only a third of U.S. college graduates leave school having had one?

Brandon Busteed has spent his career at the intersection of education and workforce outcomes — as founder of an ed-tech company, as the executive at Gallup who led the largest representative study of college graduates in U.S. history, and now as CEO of Edconic, which runs industry-immersive degree programs with partners like Sotheby's, Vogue College of Fashion, The School of the New York Times, and Manchester City Sports Business School. His argument: where your kid gets in matters less than what happens after they arrive.

We get into the Gallup research — specifically what the data says about internships, long-term projects, mentors, and relationship-rich experiences, and why most families aren't asking about any of them. The findings are striking. Students who complete a long-term project spanning a semester or more also double their odds of workplace engagement — because that kind of sustained, iterative work mirrors what most jobs actually require. And students who report having a mentor who encouraged their goals and dreams? Same effect on lifelong wellbeing. Only 22% of graduates say they had one.

We also talk about what questions to actually ask on a college tour — not "do you offer internships?" (every school will say yes) but what percentage of students across all majors actually complete one, and whether they receive academic credit for it. That second question is the real signal: academic credit means the institution treats work-integrated learning as core, not an optional add-on.

A counterintuitive finding worth sitting with: humanities majors who get internships differentiate themselves with employers more effectively than STEM majors alone. Employers want broadly educated and specifically skilled — and the combination is more powerful than either alone. Brandon shares data showing an English major with an industry credential is four times more likely to be hired than an English major without one.

We also get into how AI is changing this calculus — and not entirely in the ways you'd expect — plus what a genuine teaching culture looks like on a campus versus what colleges say about it, and why the liberal arts versus vocational training debate is one of the biggest things holding higher ed back right now.

What Parents Should Ask:

• What percentage of students across all majors complete an internship — not just in a few programs?
• Is it required, or optional?
• Do students receive academic credit for internships?
• Is there funding available for students doing unpaid or low-paid internships?
• Does this major have a capstone or long-term project requirement?
• Who are the faculty here known for their teaching — not their research output?

Find Brandon:

On LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/busteed/

On Forbes - https://www.forbes.com/sites/brandonbusteed/

Find Ringae:

Website - https://waysmith.io/

Book a discovery call - https://cal.com/waysmith/discovery-call

Sign up for my newsletter - https://waysmith.io/#newsletter