Abstract:

Data has shown that internships expand academic outcomes and students’ employability; however, there are limited number of internship opportunities compared to the number of students interested. In many cases the internship could be very stressful, working in a new environment, not sure if able to hand the work, the location may require long commuting, not sure if work assigned to interns are related to their field of study, and many more. This becomes more apparent to first-generation college students and underrepresented students. Computer Science departments strive for excellence in the discipline and profession to provide the best quality of education to students at all levels; and to prepare them for a successful professional career into advanced studies or the professional industry. Here at California State University Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), with the student population of 80% underrepresented, a number of initiatives concerning student success is in place; for instance, the Computer Science (CS) department in collaboration with the division of Information Technology Services (ITS) developed a unique internship program. This program provides more internship opportunities for students to gain a real-world experience by working at different departments within the division of ITS at the school. Depending on the sector within the division that they have their internships in, they will gain experience in programming, networking, and/or security. Like many other internship opportunities, students will experience the teamwork and learn to communicate effectively. The unique benefits of the program include, close supervision of students, biweekly reports provided to the internship coordinator by the lead technicians (supervisors), regular meetings between the coordinator and the intern supervisors, elimination of commuting time as the location is within the campus, and increase in the number of internship opportunities. Students may participate in this technology internship program upon completion of their first-year and second year studies. Students may choose to participate in more than one internship up to the final semester of their studies. Students who are interested in participating in the internship program must register for the course IT Practicum - CTC 399. This is a three-credit-unit course requiring six contact hours per week; and the credits are awarded after the completion of the program. This program has grown from less than 10 interns a year to about 80 internship positions per year at CSUDH. This program has provided opportunities for many of our students who would not be able to gain this experience otherwise. A good number of our interns have been able to improve their course work due to their internships experience, and they have seen more opportunities delivered to them for employment. This paper will discuss the process of developing this program at CSUDH; and will provide a guideline on how an institution may start one. The work will explain who the stakeholders are; what are the benefit of this program to students, institution, and the divisions of ITS; and how to develop an IT-Practicum course. It will also describe the training sessions, reporting process, and the regular assessment method for the purpose of continuous improvements.

Keywords:

Internships, IT-Practicum, workforce experience.