Conference Session

CEED Paper Session 1: Using Co-Op and Internships to Improve Diversity, Retention, Learning, and Assessment

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Vedaraman Sriraman, Texas State University - San Marcos; Bobbi J. Spencer, Texas State University - San Marcos; Kimberly Grau Talley P.E., Texas State University - San Marcos; Araceli Martinez Ortiz, Texas State University - San Marcos

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Cooperative & Experiential Education

, families, and students from underrepresented communities. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2016 Early Internships for Engineering Technology Student Retention: A Pilot StudyAbstractResearch in engineering technology major retention suggests that early internships present anoutstanding opportunity for freshman and sophomore students to engage, socialize, and learn incommunities of practice and to “discover” the link between theory and practice early in theiracademic tenure, leading to a consequent improvement in retention rates. At Texas StateUniversity, the traditional senior-level capstone internship program was reengineered andconverted into a sophomore level

Conference Session

CEED Paper Session 1: Using Co-Op and Internships to Improve Diversity, Retention, Learning, and Assessment

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Morteza Sadat-Hossieny, Northern Kentucky University; Mauricio Torres, Northern Kentucky University

Tagged Divisions

Cooperative & Experiential Education

. After working in a manufacturing field, some studentsdevelop an interest in pursuing further knowledge in a specific field of manufacturing. Under themechanical and manufacturing engineering technology programs, students can focus their studiesby taking optional courses in design, quality, or tool design.Building a Network of Professional ContactsEvaluation of the experiences of engineering technology students at NKU has demonstrated thatthose students who obtain co-op positions early on in their academic careers have a much bettersuccess rate for acquiring jobs related to their own academic major. As [3] noted previously,industrial involvement in capstone courses or co-op courses has been shown to enrich students’experiences and lend to a

Conference Session

CEED Paper Session 1: Using Co-Op and Internships to Improve Diversity, Retention, Learning, and Assessment

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Timothy J. Garrison, York College of Pennsylvania; Wayne Blanding, York College of Pennsylvania

Tagged Divisions

Cooperative & Experiential Education

Pennsylvania.While the benefits to the students are vital, the impact of a co-op program goes beyond thestudents. Industry can gain benefit by obtaining staffing for projects at a substantially reducedrate (and typically without the benefits overhead). Moreover, by hiring interns and co-opstudents, industry can develop a recruiting system that allows them to make better hiringdecisions than can be done via a resume and interview alone.The benefit also extends to the higher education institutions. An organized co-op program canhelp the institution develop relationships with regional and national industry. Thoserelationships can be valuable in many ways. For example, at the authors’ institution, the industryrelations developed through the co-op program have

Conference Session

CEED Paper Session 1: Using Co-Op and Internships to Improve Diversity, Retention, Learning, and Assessment

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Katelyn Elizabeth Gunderson, Rochester Institute of Technology; Margaret B. Bailey P.E., Rochester Institute of Technology ; Joseph A. Raelin, Northeastern University; Jamie Ladge; Robert Garrick, Rochester Institute of Technology

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Cooperative & Experiential Education

subjects cited the benefits of working alongsideprofessionals with which they could personally identify and several of them specifically pointedout that they encountered both men and women who served as valuable role models to them.An area of future investigation will seek to better understand the following. Can work self-efficacy, considered to be so vital to mobilizing the positive results from co-op experience, bebrought out in other experiential activities such as capstone projects, undergraduate research, andeven experiences within the classroom environment? Answers to this question could benefitengineering schools with an active co-op program in helping faculty and academic advisorscoach and inform first and second year students as to best