A new short-term internship program from the will benefit both students and units across the UW by providing focused learning experiences over four weeks this summer.
The Summer Project-Based Learning Program matches students seeking internship experience with departments that have discrete, well-defined projects that can be completed in a month. It will give students a chance to develop and practice professional skills in a real-world environment while letting departments move projects forward in a low-stakes, high-impact way.
The Career & Internship Center, which is part of the Division of Student Life, launched the program after hearing feedback from students that the highly competitive internship landscape in Seattle, and the limited number of UW on-campus student jobs, makes it difficult to find positions 鈥 particularly for first- and second-year students.
鈥淔or Huskies who are having hard time landing internship opportunities or on-campus jobs, this is a way we can help them build professional skills on smaller scale,鈥 said Lindsay Smith, Associate Director of Employer & Community Connections at the Career & Internship Center. 鈥淔or departments, it鈥檚 a chance to start or complete projects that may be on the back burner during academic year.鈥
Building valuable skills
Through the program, students will learn to work in teams, take direction and feedback from supervisors, and gain other professional skills that are valuable to employers but not necessarily taught in classrooms.
鈥淲e鈥檙e hearing from employers that students don’t always have skills they need in terms of communication, professional expectations and things like that,鈥 said Eli Davis, Internship Program Manager at the center. 鈥淭his program can help students build those valuable skills early.鈥
The Summer Project-Based Learning Program is based on the and is funded by donor support. Students and departments will be matched based on the skills needed for the department鈥檚 project.
Easy lift, clear impact
The Career & Internship Center will pay participating students a $400 stipend at the end of their internship; the center is also managing recruitment, hiring and onboarding, making the lift relatively low for departments that hire students.
The easy hiring is just one of the perks for UW departments that participate, Smith and Davis said: departments will get a sort of trial period with student employees who could become longer-term hires down the road, a fresh perspective on a project, and development opportunities for staff who would like to move into management roles but don鈥檛 have any supervisory experience.
鈥淲e deliberately kept the lift light. So while this program will require departments to put in some time developing their project plans and working with their intern, the returns on that investment will be clear,鈥 said Davis.
The program is being piloted this summer with a small number of students and departments; if it鈥檚 successful, Smith and Davis said the cohorts will be expanded in the future. The center will also look at offering the program multiple times throughout the year, so that students who don鈥檛 stay in Seattle over the summer can participate.
鈥淲e are really excited to launch this program that will help students develop great professional skills that aren鈥檛 necessarily related to their major but will be important to their career success, while also helping departments move key projects forward,鈥 Smith said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a win-win for everyone involved.鈥




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