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TEM students and employers around the country say internships have implications for the future that reach well beyond summer income and logging on-the-job experience. Students value internships as an opportunity to confirm or refine their choice of majors as well as an essential element in their long-term strategy for launching post-graduation careers with some of the most visible brands in the world. An increas- ing number of companies regard internships as an on-the- job audition and the first step in their recruiting and hiring process.
“You have to treat [the internship] as if you’re on a job interview everyday,” says Lindsey Latrice Sanders, 28, a senior at Florida International University (FIU) and engineering management major who completed an 11-week intern- ship this summer with NASA at Cape Canaveral. “The internship is a job that’s getting a feel for you.”
“An internship is the best way to get a career,” declares Alexandrea Brea, 21, an electrical engineer major and junior at FIU who worked at NASA learning hundreds of acronyms while taking on responsibility for the planning of the SLS rocket launch in five years. “It is a way to network, build resources and get your name out there.”
At Lawrence Livermore National Labora- tory (LLNL), which hosts 400 interns annually, three quarters of the hires are people who came in as interns, says
ing. Building strong team players with effective communica- tion skills is heavily emphasized at LLNL, Knezovich says. “We are a team-driven applied science laboratory. The ability to communicate clearly is a critical skill they don’t get in school that is essential for presenting your work.”
Academic growth is a key part of what Skansa USA Building says it wants its internship to deliver to students. “Obviously
Tyler Clark, rising junior, Spelman College
John Knezovich, director of university relations and science education.
Mary Fisher, assistant director of the internship program at the Georgia Institute of Technology, talks with employers who have reinforced her belief that “Internships are vital. Students who can show work experience have a leg up, and employ- ers get to save recruitment dollars and see if you are a fit” for their company and culture.
“As a young and innovative company, interns are a key com- ponent of our efforts to grow and diversify our workforce,” says Whitney Bosch, a recruiter with Google’s Building Oppor- tunities for Leadership and Development (BOLD) Internship program. Still, Bosch says the experience “provides students with opportunities to take initiative, and to develop their skills and strengths throughout the summer.”
A study earlier this year by the National Association of Col- leges and Employers (NACE) found that approximately 60 percent of 2012 college graduates who took part in paid internships received at least one job offer.
But not all employers are focused on linking internships to hir- 18 HISPANIC ENGINEER & Information Technology | 2012
we cannot hire everyone,” says Jessica Murray, senior direc- tor of communications for the company, which provides a plethora of construction services within the construction industry. “Our job is to shape and continue helping students. We hope we have taught them something they have not learned in the classroom,” she says. “The internship helps them learn and understand what they are going to be doing in a job like this.”
REAL WORK
Tyler Clark, 19 agrees. Still on a high from her summer intern- ship at the Google campus in Mountain View, Calif., Clark, a rising junior at Spelman College, said clarity was one of the benefits of working on the Enterprise Tech Support Team, looking at ways to improve online user experience. “It helped reassure I enjoy technology. They also gave me something to reach for and push myself academically.”
John Miles, 24, a chemical engineering major at Prairie View A&M University has had two internships with Allied Waste in Houston and three at Indiana University Medical School in Indianapolis. The opportunities helped him focus and discover his love of research.
www.hispanicengineer.com
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