News Release

Unique internship program helps students get a head start

March 21, 2007

An internship program unique to the region is going a long way toward helping students in the Penn State Harrisburg School of Science, Engineering, and Technology decide if they have made the proper career choice.

Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering Jerry Shoup, the program’s coordinator, explains that two years ago the school’s leadership implemented a mandatory undergraduate early internship to "get students connected as early as we can with industry — as early as late in their sophomore year or early in their junior year when skills learned in the classroom can contribute to a company."

The one-credit early internship, which differs from the traditional senior year on-the-job exposure many students experience, is a mandatory course designed to provide early exposure to a chosen career field. "The program is unique. I don’t know of any other program of its type in the region," Dr. Shoup says.

An added bonus for the engineering and technology students is that the early internship is preceded by a formal "externship" in their freshman year during which they tour business and industry similar to their planned course of study and as they contemplate a career after graduation.

"We try to help them find contacts to land the internships, but part of the learning process is for the students to contact industry in the region and, looking ahead, for potential full-time employment upon graduation, Dr. Shoup points out. "Once they have landed the internship, they write a brief statement on what they intend to accomplish with it. The statement is reviewed and if approved, the student is permitted to enroll in the course."

A minimum of 90 hours of on-the-job work is required for the early internship and has served to prompt students to seek additional experience in the field. One student comments, "My early internship not only motivated me to return as an intern with the company for a second summer, but to possibly pursue a career with them upon graduating. Had I not applied (for the internship), I may have never discovered the field of industrial hygiene which I have come to take pleasure in as my future occupation."

Another says, "Through my internship, the company has decided to fund my senior project. It is a project of mutual interest and will help me develop even more as an engineer. The company is interested in hiring me upon graduation and in helping me obtain a master’s degree."

The early internship has also served a valuable service to students who find that the future career path they have chosen may not be right for them — exactly what the program is designed to do. Students who can decide early on in their academic studies that their chosen discipline may not be right for them can more easily switch to another engineering or technology major at the college more to their liking.

Among the early internship partnering companies in the region have been Phoenix Contact, Tyco, the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and Y-connect.