Expectations
The most common difficulty faced by student interns is navigating the complexity of the institution to make timely progress in their tasks. Unexpected delays, barriers and complexities will emerge. If student interns are left alone to grapple with these daily experiences, the majority will loose enthusiasm and become disengaged. The only way to ensure that students are able to keep responding dynamically and effectively to emerging conditions is to proactively meet with them and use your own experience in proposing new strategies and project directions.
One of the most important management functions of the student internship program (SIP) manager is to constantly evaluate and redefine the intern project as new information and experiences come to light. The SIP manager must constantly work with interns to support the evolution of their own expectations, tasks and strategies.
Bottom line: Every internship project will necessarily go through drastic changes not reflected in the initial work plan. This is simply due to the fact that internships operate in very complex settings, in which the availability of information and support is not fully known until the internship is well underway. Students and SIP managers alike must be aware of this going into it.