That's not what I thought I'd be doing! Aligning expectations with your student interns

Student internships are an important way to recruit and train young professionals passionate about natural ecosystems. Working with students can be rewarding, benefiting both interns and non-profit organizations, but sometimes relationships sour, leading to derailed projects and negative experiences. How can we avoid these unpleasant situations? Investing time examining assumptions early in an internship program can resolve misaligned expectations, strengthen mentoring relationships, and increase the contributions of student interns. Drawing from exercises used in summer undergraduate research programs, this workshop introduces simple activities that internship program directors and intern supervisors can employ with student interns in your organization. These processes identify misaligned expectations, lead to greater mentor-mentee understanding, and yield internship programs that are more meaningful, effective, and enriching for the interns, their mentors, and the organization.