Internship Stages

• Orientation: Morale is high, student has high expectations, but unsure of what will learn and what it’s like to actually work in the field. There is concern about how co-workers will perceive them and concern about the work site itself - pace of work, organizational values, knowledge required to be successful. Check with mentor about what to expect and discuss learning objectives.
• Reassessment: Marked by a drop in morale and task accomplishment, feelings may include frustration, anger, disappointment and discouragement. Excitement wears off, and might feel some disappointment about the “real world of work” and that mentor has other responsibilities besides supervising you. Need to reassess expectations, goals and skills.
• Resolution: Re-examine goals and expectations, compare internship description and/or learning goals with reality. Discuss issues identified in the Reassessment stage with mentor and resolve them, so morale and task accomplishment rise. Interns achieve a sense of independence, confidence and effectiveness.
• Competence: Interns move towards autonomy on the job, morale is high with a clear sense of purpose, feel more professional with increased productivity. Can ask for higher level tasks as feel more like a part of the organization.
• Culmination: End of internship, feel pride in accomplishments, as well as sadness upon ending the work experience. Sometimes feel guilt at not having accomplished more, or because the project may not continue once you leave. Talk with mentor about project closure and accomplishments. The mentor will be asked to complete a formal evaluation of the intern's performance and return it to BEIIP, and the intern will also be asked to evaluate the internship experience.