Abstract

Internships are important for secondary students so they may develop academic, social, and decision-making skills that will be applicable in the real world. Secondary students acquire internships in the summer with organizations or universities, but the learning outcomes are unclear. This qualitative study determined if secondary student interns develop academic and social growth through a two-week summer engineering internship. This internship required secondary students to work as classroom assistants with teachers learning engineering curricula to teach to K-12 students. The secondary students assisted in the classroom with CAD drawing, programming and constructing robotics and animatronics. The objective of the student intern program was to give these interns an authentic experience on a college campus with the necessary tools and skills, so that these students will choose to attend university and major in an engineering field. Within the internship, daily one-hour workshops took place with a focus on developing soft skills. The workshops ranged from intern roles, professional communication, interview process and skills, how to write a resume, how to apply for college, financial aid and scholarships, and college experience. The results from this study show students do develop soft skills, such as communication and public speaking, new knowledge gained, and confidence through the internship learning environment.