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As an intern, you have responsibilities to the team's sponsor, the other student team members or co-workers, your school, and your own best interest. By accepting a position as an intern, you are accountable to the following:
An internship sponsor is someone who will be your primary contact and support throughout your internship. This could be a manager, community leader, or company representative.
Work 5-6 hours per week on the assigned project topics to develop the deliverables outlined for the project.
Provide honest work with professionalism and integrity.
Be creative in providing the best work and recommendations possible.
Maintain information confidentially and ensure that private information is protected and not divulged.
Communicate weekly to inform them of your progress, receive updates, and counsel on project direction.
Attend weekly team/work meetings and participate fully in the project.
Actively participate in team/work discussions and contribute to the development of work plans, approaches, and recommendations.
Complete work assignments on time and in a professional manner.
Assist other team members or co-workers as needed in the completion of their assignments and help them develop new skills and capabilities.
Do not disappear from team/work meetings and assignments because of school workload, jobs, or searching for internships and full-time work.
Read the textbook (and attend classes where required) to be fully knowledgeable of course and team responsibilities and learnings.
Uphold your school's standards and honor code, including academic and personal honesty and integrity.
Enhance your school's reputation through your professional and mature work ethic and how you complete your assignments and communication.
Assure that future students will get opportunities to work with companies because of the quality of your work.
You best serve yourself by working hard and smart to learn as much as possible from this experience to prepare you for the future.
By doing your best, you learn whether you like this kind of work or company and whether or not you want to pursue this career.
By fully participating, you develop skills and experiences that will help you succeed in future internships and careers.
By making an impact on the sponsor during the project, you create the potential for impressive bullet points on your resume.
By being fully engaged in the project, you create the ability to explain in a job interview how you contributed to the sponsor’s success through your efforts and the team’s/co-worker’s efforts on the project.
To ensure you meet the above responsibilities with integrity and receive the full benefit of this internship learning experience, you should:
Attend all team/work meetings and fully participate in discussions and teamwork/project work.
Work on your internship for at least 5-6 hours per week outside of your classwork and update the personal timesheet weekly.
Upload your goals in the first few weeks of the semester.
Complete all work assignments in a professional and timely manner.
Fulfill any assigned role (e.g. sponsor liaison) responsibilities you receive.
Document all project deliverables and upload them onto Canvas, the EduSourced Dashboard, (team roles and meeting times, engagement letter, work plan, mid-term report, final report, final presentation), or other repositories as defined by your school or company.
Complete Peer Evaluation 360 surveys (beginning, mid-term & end of the project) with honesty if assigned to your project. Survey team members if part of a student project team, and survey co-workers if you are doing an individual internship.
Complete personal final deliverables: accomplishments, learning essay, company impact report, and three bullets for your resume or professional portfolio.
Participate with energy, passion, enthusiasm, and professionalism.
Enjoy this opportunity, grow in your abilities and experience, and make your school proud of your efforts. There will be times when you are frustrated, confused, overwhelmed, discouraged, and down-hearted… But that is just a sign that you are on the verge of great learning and new insights into your capabilities. Use your advisors, mentors, and course Instructor to help you over the difficult parts of the project and have great success.
Each Project-Based internship team or Individual intern will have a mentor (Instructor, Teaching Assistant Coordinator [TA Coordinator], or other mentor) to help and support the team or Individual. The Mentor/TA Coordinator will not be doing your project work or leading your team. However, your TA Coordinator will be a great resource for managing the process of completing the project and knowing the resources available to the team.
See the video below to understand how Mentors and TA Coordinators can be a powerful resource for your team (or your individual internship) and sponsor.
Roger McCarty: As a participant in an experiential learning class, you will have some combination of faculty advisors, business mentors, and/or TAs assigned to your team. These advisors, mentors, and TAs (hereafter called resources) are available to support your team in a successful project. These resources are not there to take over your project or hijack your strategy for success.
The experiential learning classes are to prepare you to work in the real world, where you will not have faculty to support you, but there will be mentors and others who will want to help you. If you were on a safari in Africa, where you had never traveled, would you turn down the advice of an experienced guide who knew the jungle and the terrain?
[A cartoon animation of a tourist photographing an alligator in a pool of water appears. A tour guide waves frantically in the background from a vehicle. A sign that says “Stay In Vehicle” is near the water. The scene changes to show that the tourist has been swallowed by the alligator.]
In your future jobs, you should seek out mentors and other experienced guides to help you avoid the pitfalls of your job.
[A cartoon animation of the exterior of a bowling alley appears. The scene shifts to show the lanes of the bowling alley with a ball rolling toward bowling pins.]
The role of resources played during the experiential learning class might be compared to the parable of the bumper guards. I think we have all had the opportunity to visit a bowling alley and to roll a few balls down the lane. I suppose most of us have rolled the ball down the center of the alley and got the strike by knocking down all of the pins.
[The sound of a bowling ball knocking down bowling pins is heard.]
I also suppose that most of us have rolled more than our fair share of balls into the gutters on the sides and knocked down no pins.
[An animation of a bowling ball going into the gutter and knocking down no pins appears.]
Now, as a bowler, you can roll the ball down almost any of the lane and knock down some pins, but if you roll a ball into the gutter, you are not going to knock down any pins. Because children and others of us who have had a hard time keeping the balls out of the gutter, the bowling alley provides bumper guards.
[An animation of a bowling alley with bumper guards rising into position appears.]
These guards can be raised to block access to the gutters. When the bumper guards are engaged and a ball starts to move toward the gutter, the guard bounces the ball back into the alley. The guard does not impact the ball as long as it stays in the lane; it only impacts a ball that will fall into the gutter. Now, a ball in the gutter will always get a score of zero, and that is not a good thing. So, when a ball is heading for a zero score, the guard gently directs the ball back into the lane where it has a chance to score points by knocking down pins.
[An animation of a bowling alley with a ball bouncing off a bumper guard, rolling toward bowling pins, and then knocking the pins over appears. The sound of a bowling ball knocking down bowling pins is heard.]
The experiential learning class resources (faculty, mentors, and teaching assistants) act as the bumper guards for your project. As long as your projects are moving forward effectively and without foreseeable problems, the resource guards are just observers.
[An animation of mentors standing next to a bowling alley holding arrow signs and appears. The arrows point toward the pins. The bowler rolls the ball. The sound of a bowling ball knocking down bowling pins is heard.]
They are available for you to ask questions and seek advice, but you are free to act on their advice as you see fit. It is your project, and you are in command. But when a project is headed for the gutter because the project teams are not following the processes that will lead to a successful outcome or not applying the appropriate tools and analysis for success, the resources will gently inform the team of the problem. When deliverables are not clearly identified, a work plan not created or followed, a midterm not held, a final report not written, and so forth, the resources can help the team identify what needs to happen to put the project back on track to be successful. When a team is struggling to find tools or analysis which could be used to create a successful outcome, the resources may be able to help the team identify appropriate tools and analysis that they could use. The resources are there to keep the project from failing but not to direct the specifics of the project.
Teams which have used their resources to maximize their impact have generally far outperformed the teams that have hidden from their resources and tried to avoid them. Some teams seem to feel that they are a better team if they can avoid all help.
[A graph appears showing the correlation between high and low-performing teams and employees, and their willingness to seek or avoid using the resources available to them, including advice, support, mentoring, and ideas.]
Recruiters and companies tell us that people who try and do projects on their own are considered low potential employees. High potential employees seek advice, mentoring, and ideas from every source they can find. No one is smarter than the group, and you should use every resource available to you.
So, happy bowling, and may your project ball always roll down the center of the lane. But if it doesn't, be thankful for the resources that are there to help gently guide your team toward a successful project.
The company sponsor is an important member of your team. Some of their key responsibilities include:
Meeting with your team/intern weekly (15 minutes to an hour)
Agreeing on final deliverables and when they will be due (as part of the engagement letter)
Giving regular feedback to the team/intern
For a full list of TA Coordinator and Company Sponsor Responsibilities, read the next two sections of this chapter.
The Company Sponsor and Company Key Contacts are critical to the success of the Project-Based Experiential Learning team/Intern and their projects. The Company Sponsor defines the project and clearly articulates what they want the student team/intern to deliver. The Key Company Contact works with the students throughout the semester to ensure that they stay on track with the needs of the company and have the resources necessary to succeed in the project. There may be one person who is both the Company Sponsor and the Key Contact, or there may be more than one person who acts in these roles.
Schedule regular weekly meeting times throughout the project (15 minutes to one hour is normal, but some weeks, the meeting will not need to be held, and other weeks may require more time).
Establish a process for how you will communicate between meetings.
Agree on the final deliverables and when they will be due (as part of the engagement letter) or describe work that builds throughout the semester or evolves at the sponsor’s direction.
Give regular feedback to the team/intern to let them know how they are doing.
Approve expenses necessary for the completion of project deliverables and pay for them or reimburse the students (approved expenses will be invoiced after the project).
Complete the company sponsor surveys that are sent to you at mid-project and after the final presentation.
It is important that the objective/goal of the project be clearly defined in the original application, but it is normally necessary to revisit the objective/goal once the project kicks off at the beginning of the course. The final project description and deliverables of the project should be clearly articulated and documented for the team in the engagement letter you develop with them.
It is good to maintain regular contact with the students to ensure that they are on the right track, answer questions, and assist with resources. It is most common that the company will have weekly meetings with the student team (please never go longer than two weeks between updates with the team). These meetings may be in person, via Zoom, WhatsApp, or other teleconference technologies.
While the student will benefit greatly from the company contact’s experience and expertise, it is important not to try and steer them too much from the perspective of one's personal experience. One of the benefits of the student team/intern is that they bring a fresh perspective and have recently been trained in some of the most up-to-date approaches. Share your insight and perspective with them, but encourage them to seek fresh outlooks throughout the project.
It would be beneficial to set up conference calls for the students with subject matter experts within the sponsor company so the students could gain their perspective on the topics being researched. Please make available to the students all of the information sources within your company. If you have promised internal data to the students, please provide it promptly so as not to delay the project timeline.
Where possible, it is helpful when you can provide contacts from your industry that are knowledgeable on the project topics. If the students are benchmarking or doing industry analysis, your personal or corporate network could provide valuable contacts that the students could meet with or interview for insight and understanding.
We encourage you to approve expenses for the team that are relevant to the project. You may pay for the expenses directly, reimburse the students directly, or let us know and we can invoice you for the costs at the end of the semester.
Complete the company surveys (mid-term and final) concerning the students to help the school in grading the students, giving them feedback, and improving the program.
The TA Coordinator’s (or instructor or other mentor) role is to ensure that the project team agrees to a viable and relevant project scope and breadth and then develops and implements a work plan to give credible and actionable recommendations/results to the company sponsor. In addition, under the direction of the Course Instructor, you may assist the team in assuring the deliverables are business-relevant and support the team/intern where they lack business experience. Through regular meetings and checkpoints, the TA Coordinator will assure that the team/intern stays on task, on point, and on schedule to provide the deliverables as promised.
The TA Coordinator will meet these responsibilities largely by:
Supporting the team during team formation by helping them understand the team roles and the making of role assignments.
Ensuring that the team has established weekly team meeting times that all members can attend and that weekly company sponsor meetings are scheduled.
Advising the team/intern in developing and negotiating the tasks and deliverables necessary to meet the needs of the company sponsors (documented in the engagement letter).
Assisting the team/intern in developing a work plan to complete the tasks and deliverables in a credible and timely manner.
Advising the students on how to implement the work plan (e.g., secondary research, market analysis, financial analysis, etc.) and assisting them in overcoming obstacles encountered during the project.
Reviewing the completed tasks and deliverables to ensure they meet a quality standard before developing final recommendations.
Reviewing the final technical report and executive presentation for completeness, engagement, and professionalism.
Ensuring that complete documentation exists to support all conclusions and recommendations.
Ensuring that the executive summary is concise, complete, and follows a business top-down (recommendation first) approach.
Ensuring that the final presentation follows the pyramid principle approach (situation, recommendations, conclusions, and supporting information) and provides a compelling argument meeting the deliverables of the project.
Providing feedback to the Course Instructor on the performance of the team and its members.
Providing feedback concerning the completion of each of the project milestones (e.g. engagement letter, work plan, etc.)
Contacting the company sponsor after mid-term and final reports for sponsor feedback.
Updating the Course Instructor through periodic emails and verbal communications on the team's progress.
Updating the team’s grades in Canvas after the TA Coordinator reviews assignments and milestones following the associated rubrics provided.
It is expected that the workload should average about ½ to 1 hour per team per week, with more effort involved in weeks 1 to 4 and weeks 13 to 15. There will likely be less involvement in the middle weeks of the project. But as always, each project is unique, and the workload could be spread out differently for your projects. It is recommended that the TA Coordinator contacts the team and reviews the project's progress toward milestones and deliverables at least every two weeks.
Each TA Coordinator will have their own mentoring approach, but the student team/intern must take ownership of the project and process. The mentor should coach, counsel, advise, and support, but should never take over the direction or decision-making process for the team. There will be times when the team/intern is struggling, and the TA Coordinator should shift from coaching to a directive role with very specific suggestions to help the team through difficult issues. But always remember that the team/intern has the final say on project plans and approaches. If you feel the team/intern is not taking your advice and the credibility or actionability of the project outcome is in question, contact the Course Instructor or the Project-Based Internship Coordinator ASAP.
If you have any questions concerning your involvement in working on the projects or with the students, please contact the Course Instructor or the Project-Based Internship Coordinator for further clarification. Thank you for your support of the students and Internships at Ensign College and BYU Pathway.
This content is provided to you freely by Ensign College.
Access it online or download it at https://ensign.edtechbooks.org/projectbased_internships/roles_and_responsibilities.
