NAF Unveils New Resources to Prepare Students & Supervisors for Internship Success!

When it comes to internships, both students and employers go through a multi-phase recruitment and hiring cycle. After the interns are selected, another round of logistics kicks in as students complete employment forms and employers coordinate details, such as equipment and technology needs. While these steps are important, preparing interns and supervisors for the different dimensions of working together is a critical piece that is sometimes overlooked.

Through feedback we received from partners, educators, and students, we have developed two collections of resources intentionally designed to help prepare students and supervisors for internship success!

Student-Focused Internship Prep Modules

Co-designed and piloted by educators and students, these 10 lesson plans help prepare all students to navigate many different aspects of their internship experience, including goal setting, communication, and engaging confidently in their workplaces. The modules are highly interactive and include several activities from DC Public Schools’ Tenacity internship prep curriculum. Module sequence is flexible and can be implemented to best fit educators’ classroom needs. Each module is “stand alone” and does not require other modules as a prerequisite for implementation.

All 10 lesson plans and additional resources, including videos and activities, are publicly accessible on our Internship Prep Modules landing page.

Internship Supervisor Resources

Students will have a more impactful internship experience if their supervisors understand who they are and what they need to be successful, create clear expectations, and develop projects that benefit them and the organization, and consistently provide them with helpful feedback on their performance. With this in mind, we developed a series of resources designed to provide internship supervisors with tools and strategies to use during each phase of their work with their intern(s). These resources are clear, easily digestible, holistic, intentional in addressing DEIA topics, and focus on highlighting student voices. NAF partners including KPMG, Verizon, Lenovo, Capital One, Optum, WWT, Mastercard (St. Louis), Cognizant, and The Hartford (Hartford, CT) piloted these resources during the summer of 2022 and 100% strongly agreed or agreed that they would recommend these resources.

All materials are publicly available via our Internship Supervisor Resource Hub.

Additional WBL Resources

In the Prepare for Internships landing page, you can explore a number of additional resources beyond the two new collections referenced above. Topics range from how students can convert/elevate a job into an internship, strategies for planning effective virtual internships, a work and learning plan template, and more.

More Preparation = Better Outcomes

Internship preparation should happen by design rather than being left to chance. Both data and anecdotes reinforce the relationship between preparation and outcomes. Given that many internships last for 6-8 weeks, guaranteeing that students and supervisors can hit the ground running has a big impact on the quality of the outcomes for both groups. Ensuring that interns and supervisors feel more informed and confident going into their time together, means the experience can better enable interns to clarify their career aspirations, develop skills, and build connections.

We hope that these resources will be beneficial to you, as we look to the next internship season. NAF is proud to support your journey to success!