In engineering and STEM, internships are upheld as "high impact" practices and recommended to students by faculty, staff, and peers. Furthermore, there is a significant amount of research focused on the positive outcomes and benefits of participating in internship programs. Due to the calls to increase the quality and quantity of internships for students, it is important to explore and deepen our understanding of students' experiences in such programs. Through this dissertation, I explored engineering undergraduate students' experiences in a particular research-focused internship program.
Specifically, I explored the influence of programmatic elements on students' experiences, students' perceptions of situated learning, and students' perceptions of sense of belonging in relation to their intent to return. The overarching study and resulting manuscripts provide additional detail to underlying phenomena and mechanisms that contributed to students' experiences in one program. The two most salient findings from the overarching study were the importance of both social interaction and learning in students' experiences. This work suggests key questions for practitioners and those who work with STEM students or internship programs. Future work should be conducted to continue to explore students' experiences in engineering internships and to continue to increase our understanding of how to better educate and train our students. / Doctor of Philosophy / Internships provide an important hands-on and professional development opportunity for undergraduate students in STEM. There have been many studies focused on the positive impacts of doing internships, however, it is important to understand what leads to and supports positive impacts. This study focused on three different areas of an internship program. Specifically, I looked at how program design influenced students' experiences, students' perceptions of learning, and how sense of belonging influenced intent to return after the internship program. The results of this work added to our knowledge of how internships support students' experiences. Through conducting the three studies, social interaction and learning emerged as two important aspects in students' experiences. In the discussion, this study provides key questions for practitioners and people who work with STEM students or internship programs. Lastly, future work should be conducted to continue to explore students' experiences in engineering internships and to continue to increase our understanding of how to better educate and train students.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/119403 |
| Date | 11 June 2024 |
| Creators | Vicente, Sophia |
| Contributors | Engineering Education, Matusovich, Holly, Sajadi, Susan, McNair, Elizabeth D., Gersie, Wayne M. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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