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All members of the Dickinson and Carlisle community are invited to aprticipate in the annual, newly configured Experiential Learning Showcase (ELS), featuring all of the ways in which students are applying their learning through hands-on experiences. Gather for food and food for thought on Thursday, February 19th from 12-1:30pm in Stern Great Room! The  is open until January 30, 2026.

Experiential Learning Showcase

Experiential learning is the ongoing educational process of gaining knowledge and skills through hands-on experience and critical reflection. Experiential learning theory recognizes that learning is an ongoing cycle, rather than a linear process, which involves constant renegotiations of how a person thinks and acts because of their experiences (Dewey, 1916; Kolb, 2014). As such, it is a holistic process that involves a learners’ beliefs and ideas in interaction with their environment, including an engagement with conflict, differences, and disagreements (Freire, 1970; Kolb & Kolb, 2005). 

At °µÍø½ûÇø, experiential learning is a crucial facet of our liberal arts education and takes many forms, including community and civic engagement, student employment opportunities, study abroad experiences, service immersions, undergraduate research, internships, and service-learning courses. In each of these cases, students often draw on their education to address contemporary problems or work collaboratively toward solutions. In the process, they not only apply academic concepts in practice but construct new knowledge, gain skills, and develop self-understanding that prepares them to be engaged participants.

Here at the Center for Civic Learning & Action and Center for Career Development, we are excited to offer an opportunity to not only showcase the variety of ways in which Dickinson students participate in experiential learning but also offer a venue for collective reflection of those experiences across the College. All students who participate in experiential learning are invited to apply for a chance to present! Our Centers will cover the fees to print 20 posters at this year’s Symposium, and all students who present will be eligible for a distinguished Experiential Learning Award conferred by a panel of faculty and staff. We are also excited that the former Internship Showcase is joining us for this collaborative event.  

Timeline

December 1, 2025: Proposal opens 

Friday, January 30, 2026: Deadline to submit 50-word abstracts and draft posters (including a title and bullet points for the three sections) 

Monday, February 2, 2026: Accepted proposals announced 

Thursday, February 5, 2026: Final posters due to print 

Thursday, February 19th, 2026 12-1:30pm: Presentations at the Experiential Learning Showcase 

Poster format and requirements:

Each proposal must include a title, presenter name(s), a project abstract, and physical set-up needs. Detailed instructions can be found on this  and . Proposals can be submitted through this application. The deadline to be considered for the Spring 2026 Experiential Learning Showcase is January 30, 2025. 

Regarding content, we ask that each poster includes the following three sections that correspond to key experiential learning stages: 

Experience: What did you do? 

• What issue or problem did you address? 

• What question were you trying to answer with your work? 

• Who did you work with? What communities did you interact with? 

• What were some of your responsibilities and projects? 

Reflection: What did you learn through the process? 

• What preliminary answers were you able to find? What evidence can you provide? Draw on diverse sources, e.g. visuals, research, anecdotes, photographs, documents 

• How did you deepen your understanding of an issue, problem, question, or community through your experience? 

• What questions do you have now? 

Application: What is the impact of your experience on your identity, values, and behaviors? What is the community impact? 

• Identity, values, self-knowledge 

• Career and professional competencies 

• Skills and knowledge 

• Connections 

• Informing future work, internships, projects 

Sources 

Printing Guidelines

Final posters must be submitted via email to engage@dickinson.edu by February 8, 2026. Please note that you must cite your sources for any data listed on the poster. We will send a reminder email once you are accepted with poster guidelines and submission details. Posters should be a 24-1/2” x 36-1/2” with a 1" margin around the outside; poster titles should be legible from 20 feet. Other content should be clearly legible from 4-6 feet. Use this â€¯to ensure you have the correctly sized single-sided poster; final submissions must be in PDF format. â¶Ä¯&²Ô²ú²õ±è;

Resources

Abstracts from former versions of this event might be useful in getting a sense of topics. 

You can also browse through the  to see the range of topics and design. 

We recommend the following resources to assist in designing your poster:   

•  from PLos Computational Biology, May 2007.  

•  from University of Nebraska-Lincoln  

•  from the Center for Innovation and Research in Teaching at Grand Canyon University. The embedded videos are helpful! 


If you have any questions or comments, contact â€¯CCLA, at engage@dickinson.edu. â¶Ä¯&²Ô²ú²õ±è;

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):

What is a poster presentation?

A poster presentation is an informal modality of sharing your learning experiences with a public audience. Presenters design a large visual poster with key insights, and participants are invited to walk through the poster display at their leisure, stopping to listen to a presenter or ask questions. Many academic conferences across the disciplines draw on posters as an opportunity to present multiple simultaneous projects at once, which often makes the experience feel less formal and conversational. Presenters also have a chance to indicate whether they’d like a chance to present their poster in “Ed Talk” style, which is a five minute verbal presentation to the entire audience. 

Why would I want to participate?

Designing and presenting a poster is a great professional development opportunity. It allows you to practice the skill of translating your experiences both visually and verbally to a public audience, who may or may not have any technical background in your work. Furthermore, though poster sessions are often utilized as a channel to share academic research, this forum offers students a chance to intentionally reflect on the ways that all of your experiences—inside the classroom, abroad, in Carlisle, at an internship, or through a campus job—inform who you are and who you want to be. By participating, you also get a chance to network with other students across the College who are deeply engaged and share the work you do with the broad campus/community, which might not otherwise have a forum to shine. 

Who is eligible to apply?

Students may present individually or in teams. There is no restriction on class year or major. The only qualification is that students participated in experiential learning, broadly defined, and submit a proposal on their topic. 

How should I prepare?

We recommend first working through the poster content-related prompts to consider what it is that you would like to share with a larger public. Then, design your poster using  and submit to engage@dickinson.edu by the posted deadline for printing. After designing your poster, practice a 5 minute presentation of your poster in response to the prompt, “Tell me more about your project” (the most common opening at a poster presentation). Come up with a list of questions that you can anticipate participants might ask, and practice your responses. If you’d like any support, please reach out to Sam Ha-DiMuzio, Director of Local and Regional Partnerships at the CCLA, who’d be happy to support your process. 

Sources

Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education. The Free Press. 

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed (MB Ramos, Trans.). New York: Continuum, 2007. 

Kolb, D. A. (2014). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. FT press. 

Kolb, A. Y., & Kolb, D. A. (2005). Learning Styles and Learning Spaces: Enhancing Experiential Learning in Higher Education. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 4(2), 193–212. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2005.17268566