Impacts on Students

WPC alumni have had strong positive experiences while completing their IQP in Washington. For example, 70.9% [n = 186] of WPC alumni strongly agree or somewhat agree that “Their IQP experience benefited them in their professional career after graduation”. The percentage of alumni that strongly agree or somewhat agree that their abilities were enhanced from completing their IQP in Washington was 80-90% [n = 186 – 187]. Shown left is the agreement for some abilities and below is the overall agreement (Figure 1). This shows the benefits of the IQP experience for the students, but arguably does not show they had an ‘enjoyable’ experience. As 70.9% [n = 186] of alumni would recommend the project center to another student, it is assumed they had a positive experience. The survey also asked alumni if their project experience had a positive impact on them personally; 78.1% [n = 187] of alumni strongly or somewhat agreed with this prompt.

Figure 1: Overall Percentage of WPC Alumni that Believe Their Abilities Were Enhanced

General Open-Response

This survey contained 20 open-response questions, the majority asking alumni to elaborate on their answers within the Likert scaled questions. The responses elaborating on Likert scaled questions were used to learn more about why the alumni had answered the way they did. When alumni elaborated on how their abilities have been affected, they are then giving greater insight into how the completing their project benefited them. Below is a response from one the alumni, they strongly agreed and somewhat agreed to having their abilities enhanced in every area.

“Regular presentations to the group and agency definitely helped in preparing and delivering presentations to diverse audiences.”

WPC Alumni, Class of ‘91

These kind of anecdotes are listed in the supplementary materials to this report. They influenced the recommendations of this report, but were not quantitatively analyzed.

Comparing the First 10 Years to the Last 10 Years

An area of investigation is how students experience has changed from the first 10 years of the project center (1974 – 1983) to the most recent 10 years of the project center (2007 – 2016). Shown below (Figure 2) is the comparison between these time periods on their agreement with recommending the WPC to other students. Only 37% [n = 60] of students who attended the project center during the first 10 years strongly agree or somewhat agree that they would recommend students complete their IQP at the WPC. However, 81% [n = 37] of students in the past 10 years strongly agree or somewhat agreed with that same prompt! This is a significant discrepancy that stands out among comparisons between the first 10 years and last 10 years at the WPC.

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Figure 2: Students Change on Whether They Would Recommend the WPC to Other Students