Project Expansion
If managed well, some internship projects can be leveraged into longer term campus-greening programs. This requires a carefully planned and well-timed strategy on the part of the student internship program (SIP) manager.
The Harvard Green Campus Initiative (HGCI) has transformed numerous internships into full-fledged programs. The following factors have been essential to making this happen:
- The student intern must have worked very well with the SIP manager.
- The student intern must have been successful in building the trust, respect and overall support of the staff within the sponsoring department.
- The student intern has to be willing and able to move into a longer term employment position.
- The SIP manager needs to have identified a convincing financial plan that will enable some department at the college or university to fund the continuation of the project.
- The SIP manager needs to have successfully negotiated the new arrangement in time for the student intern to be retained.
The HGCI was successful in getting departments to continue internships that had the capacity to generate substantial savings. Behavioral change for energy conservation projects, environmental procurement projects and high-performance building projects have all evidenced the kinds of savings that made continuation feasible. Sometimes the HGCI itself continued an internship because it was capable of self-funding on a fee-for-service basis. Other internships had a reasonable payback period and were funded through the Green Campus Loan Fund.
What if the Project is Not Extended
The resources and story you collect from the intern can serve as a basis for a future incantation of the work. Ensuring solid institutional memory can enable you to track what worked and what did not work within the context of your college or university structure.
The end of the internship project is also the SIP manager’s time to assess the impact of the internship:
- Was it worth the effort?
- How well did you and the intern work together and with the sponsors?
- Did the individual members of the advisory committee provide valuable guidance?
- If any of the internship projects are continued or resurrected in the future, what should be adjusted to make them more successful?
Reflecting on the experience and taking note of lessons learned is key. Also be sure to ask the interns to reflect on what they gained from their experiences. This will help you assess your performance as a mentor.