Research & Outreach
Welcome to the Research & Outreach hub of the Monarch Humanities Internship Academy (MHIA), where scholarship meets real-world impact. Here you'll find our latest works, presentations, and collaborative efforts that demonstrate how Humanities education informs work-based learning, career readiness, and engaged outreach.
From conference presentations and works in progress, to employer partnerships and community initiatives, this page showcases how we’re translating humanities-grounded inquiry into actionable strategies for students, faculty, and industry alike. Read more to learn how our research and outreach work helps shape resilient, reflective communicators ready to thrive in diverse professional environments.
"Presenting at NCA gave us the opportunity to share the impact of the Monarch Humanities Internship Academy with a national audience. It also sparked new insights. For example, when colleagues shared practical strategies for cultivating networking skills, I began considering how we might more intentionally position the MHIA ePortfolio as a tool for sustaining and expanding those professional connections after the internship ends."
Megan Mize, PhD
ODU Career Summit (2026)
The Monarch Humanities Internship Academy recently participated in the ODU Career Summit, an internal conference that brings together recruiters, faculty, and staff to strengthen connections between higher education and the workforce. Hosted by the Center for Career and Leadership Development, this annual event focuses on aligning campus learning with employer needs and exploring how institutions and organizations can collaborate to prepare students for careers through meaningful experiences during and beyond college. Read more below about the presentations by MHIA Director of Faculty Development, Alison Lietzenmayer and the Director of ePortfolio & Digital Initiatives, Dr. Megan Mize, and MHIA Assistant Directors Dr. Michael Thompson and Ms. Kathy Mosier.
Recent Scholarship and Presentations
ODU Career Summit 2026 - Readiness is a system: Reimagining collaboration in internships
The session, Readiness is a System: Reimagining Collaboration in Internships, was well received by attendees at the 2026 ODU Career Summit. Dr. Mize and Prof. Lietzenmayer led the presentation and generated strong engagement from both faculty, staff, and employer participants through its practical, systems-oriented framing of internship readiness and its emphasis on shared responsibility across internship partnerships. Rather than positioning career readiness as an individual student trait, the session challenged attendees to reconsider how communication structures, onboarding practices, feedback systems, and reflection processes shape internship success across the faculty–intern, employer–intern, university–employer, and coordinator–provider relationships. Attendees actively participated in discussion prompts and collaborative diagnostic activities focused on identifying friction points within their own internship contexts, with many sharing common challenges related to role clarity, supervision capacity, onboarding, and communication workflows.
Participants responded particularly positively to the session’s emphasis on practical implementation tools and adaptable communication infrastructure. Presenters shared practical tools including a Structured Onboarding Checklist and framed internships through the lens of “Professional Communication as Infrastructure.” The accompanying Use–Evaluate–Edit workflow resonated strongly with attendees, particularly in conversations focused on reducing supervision friction, improving communication systems, and building improved internship systems over time.
Riley Cunningham’s perspective added an especially impactful dimension to the session by grounding systems design conversations in lived internship experience and highlighting how intentional communication structures reduce anxiety, increase clarity, and strengthen student learning. Overall, attendees described the session as actionable, collaborative, and highly relevant to ongoing efforts to improve experiential learning and career readiness practices across the university and employer community.
Humanities Advantage
This workshop presentation given at the ODU Career Summit spotlights how Humanities graduates already bring the skills employers say they need most, and how work-based learning and reflective ePortfolios make those strengths unmistakably visible.
Drawing on employer insights, student examples, and high-impact practices, the presenters, Dr. Megan Mize and Ms. Alison Lietzenmayer, demonstrated how competencies like critical thinking, communication, cultural awareness, ethical reasoning, and adaptability are developed through humanities coursework and applied in real-world contexts.
Participants explore how evidence-based hiring, skills-focused job descriptions, and collaborative industry partnerships help close the perceived “skills gap” and position humanities-trained talent as innovative, future-ready contributors across sectors like tech, nonprofit, health, and marketing.
The session offered practical strategies for faculty, advisors, and employers to champion humanities education as a powerful pathway to career readiness and workforce impact.
Reflective interaction builds students’ educational resilience: ‘Steeling’ inspiration from high impact practices.
Presented at the National Communication Association's annual convention in Denver, CO (November 2025), this presentation explored how reflective interaction helps students build educational resilience by making their challenge–response–growth cycles visible through communication.
Given by Dr. Megan Mize, Ms. Alison Lietzenmayer, with support from Dr. Gary Beck (MHIA Fac Dev participant), this work draws on examples from ODU high-impact practices, ePortfolios, and peer-supported reflection, the session shows how belonging, social affirmation, and metacognitive reframing strengthen self-efficacy and persistence towards career-readiness.
By highlighting how students use structured prompts, peer feedback, and iterative storytelling to make sense of setbacks and develop adaptive strategies, the presentation offers a scalable model for supporting first-generation and marginalized learners while preparing students to be career-ready.
Rising to the Challenge: Career Readiness in Communication
Presented by Ms. Alison Lietzenmayer, and Dr. Megan Mize, at the 2025 annual convention of the National Communication Association (Denver, CO), this research highlights how the Monarch Humanities Internship Academy (MHIA) is reshaping career readiness by embedding work-based learning, reflective practice, and NACE-aligned competencies directly into humanities coursework.
Building from ODU’s strategic plan and Mellon-funded initiative, the presentation shows how faculty-driven, communication-centered interventions help students articulate their professional identity, translate academic strengths into workplace language, and build confidence through iterative reflection and mentorship.
Drawing on early outcomes, assignment frameworks, and employer-aligned practices featured throughout the presentation, this session demonstrates a scalable, humanities-forward model for preparing students to thrive across diverse professional pathways while strengthening institutional capacity for experiential learning.
Outreach and Collaboration
Working with New Faculty in the College of Arts & Letters
Building on MHIA’s participation in the College of Arts & Letters New Faculty Orientation, Dr. Liz Zanoni and Alison Lietzenmayer delivered a focused presentation to new A&L faculty hosted by Dr. Kristian Petersen, Faculty Associate for the College of Arts & Letters and Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies.
The session further introduced faculty to the role of Work-Based Learning (WBL) at Old Dominion University and highlighted key MHIA resources that support career-connected learning in the humanities, including the Faculty and Student WBL Modules, professional development opportunities, micro-grant and micro-internship development funding, and student internship support pathways.
Department Meeting Visits in the College of Arts & Letters
MHIA’s outreach efforts, including Arts & Letters Department Meeting visits, create direct lines of communication between departments, faculty, and the Academy. Led with coordination by the Faculty Development Team of MHIA, Ms. Kathy Mosier and Dr. LIz Zanoni led a majority of these viists.
These short, high-impact check-ins help faculty stay current on WBL resources, internship support, and student-facing opportunities, while also giving departments space to share their needs, challenges, and success stories.
By bringing updates, examples, and tailored guidance straight to department meetings (see agenda and purpose on pages 1–2), MHIA reduces information gaps, strengthens campus partnerships, and makes it easier for faculty to integrate work-based learning without adding extra labor.
These visits also surface discipline-specific questions and help MHIA adapt its programming so that Arts & Letters students receive consistent, well-scaffolded pathways into internships and career development.
Center for Faculty Development's Day of Teaching
Other MHIA outreach connects faculty to the people, resources, and real student outcomes that make work-based learning effective across Arts & Letters.
Through touchpoints like Center for Faculty Development presentations, internship showcases, and department-specific conversations, MHIA helps instructors see exactly how WBL aligns with their disciplines and how the Academy can lighten the lift.
This session, led by Dr. Liz Zanoni and Ms. Alison Lietzenmayer, share updates on internship stipends, student preparation modules, and faculty development opportunities, while highlighting real examples of humanities students thriving in meaningful placements. This kind of outreach strengthens relationships across campus, ensures faculty have what they need to embed career-readiness practices, and helps keep students aware of the internships, funding, and support available to them.
New Faculty Orientation Outreach
MHIA's Faculty Development and ePortfolio teams support orientation for new Arts & Letters and Humanities faculty by introducing work-based learning as an accessible, well-supported part of teaching at ODU.
New colleagues receive quick-start resources like the WBL Student and Faculty Modules, Canvas integration guides, and clear connections to the university’s strategic goals.
Humanities faculty are also welcomed into MHIA’s Mellon-supported community through optional workshops, micro-grants, and Internship Studio partnerships.
Across all outreach, our goal is simple: make it easy for faculty to help students connect classroom learning with meaningful career pathways, and ensure that no one has to navigate WBL alone.