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Session 1375

A New Engineering Educator’s Guide for Creating a Summer Engineering Internship Program

Mark R. Tufenkjian California State University, Los Angeles

Abstract An internship experience can play a pivotal role during a student’s educational journey. An internship provides a student with an outstanding opportunity to advance their qualifications both educationally and professionally. This paper presents an organizational framework for new engineering educators to plan, develop, and implement a simple yet effective internship program at their universities. The model for discussion is a summer internship program developed by a new engineering educator for the Civil Engineering Department at California State University, Los Angeles. A flowchart illustrating the sequencing of internship activities and a description of the program materials is presented. The paper also explores the benefits of developing such a program for a tenure-track professor.

Introduction Most will agree that internships provide students with the opportunity to gain practical work experience, enhance their chances of academic success, advance their professional qualifications (including soft skills), and provide a competitive edge during their job search. The author’s own personal experience as an intern was a defining moment as an undergraduate student. Exposure to tangible work experience and a glimpse of the relationship between theory and practice was an inspiration to work harder as a student and to pursue an advanced degree in Civil Engineering.

Recognizing the potential importance of the internship experience to more fully complement a student’s education, a priority as a new engineering educator was to establish a summer internship program in the Civil Engineering Department. However, since no such program existed, a simple yet effective program was created. The goal of the internship program was to

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Tufenkjian, M. (1999, June), A New Engineering Educators Guide For Creating A Summer Engineering Internship Program Paper presented at 1999 Annual Conference, Charlotte, North Carolina. 10.18260/1-2--7857