Beyond the research experience: Implementing career development initiatives in an REU
Abstract
The Undergraduate Studies in Earthquake Information Technology (UseIT) Program is an intensive team-based REU internship program for undergraduates to gain hands-on experience applying their technical skills to earthquake information technology research questions. UseIT is a unique internship in that students are fully submerged in a research environment every day, and the workflow requires that each team project rely on another team's data to encourage collaboration. In addition to developing the interns science knowledge, technical, and research skills, the program heavily emphasizes increasing career pathways knowledge. During the past three years, we have implemented several career development competencies aimed at educating and exposing students to pathways in graduate school, industry, non-industry, government, and non-government careers. The targeted career development competencies that we are reporting on are: (1) communication skills, (2) leadership / management skills, (3) career preparation, and (4) work ethic / professionalism. Initiatives that we have implemented to support student growth in these competencies include: (1) the evolution of public speaking, starting from practicing an elevator pitch, to giving poster and oral presentations at two symposiums and two conferences; (2) working in teams where they learn how to manage differing personalities, inter- and intra- team communication, and managing their workload within each team; (3) career talks from professors, research scientists, and industry professionals; and (4) training on working in a professional setting. In addition to the career development for the interns, UseIT has been part of a collaborative initiative called the Southern California REU Symposium, where a community of at least 7 other local REU's present their research to other interns in similar IT internships. This helps the interns build a community within Information Technology fields, practice using their elevator pitches, and network with one another. Here we present lessons learned from implementing initiatives to fulfil these competencies, with recommendations on how to present these competencies to interns.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMED23E..07S
- Keywords:
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- 0810 Post-secondary education;
- EDUCATION;
- 0845 Instructional tools;
- EDUCATION;
- 0855 Diversity;
- EDUCATION