Building a successful internship program that is mutually beneficial for interns and employers requires thoughtful development of meaningful work for interns to perform, panelists said at the 5^th Annual Lehigh Valley Internship Summit.

About 100 people, including many Lehigh Valley employers, attended the summit, which was hosted by Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. (LVEDC) in partnership with the region’s colleges and universities on July 27 at DeSales University. 

The event was sponsored by DeSales and Penn Strategies.

A panel of interns and employers discussed the importance of meaningful projects and offered advice about how to achieve that goal.

The panel was moderated by Courteney Cox, Human Resources Specialist – Talent Acquisition at Lutron Electronics.

The panelists were:

• Andrea Reger, Manager of Career Development at St. Luke’s University Health Network
• Shane Houghton, former Intern and current Software Developer at St. Luke’s University Health Network
• Alexander Arruda, Project Manager at Barry Isett & Associates
• Kamron Bertie, Intern at Barry Isett & Associates

Reger said managers at St. Luke’s are encouraged to determine what their critical needs are, and how interns may be able to fill those needs. Managers are encouraged to have conversations with their interns to see how their skills align with needs.

“Where are their specialties? What are the courses that they've recently had? What is the area of focus they want to bring to the table?” Reger said.

“We really encourage the managers to think broadly about what you want them to cover, and then work to make an individualized, customized plan with those interns,” she said. “We've seen a lot of cool projects really come as a result of conversations very early in those internships.”

When he was an intern, Houghton helped to create an app that streamlined the process for sending orders to hospitals. He said he later visited the distribution center and found the bins that were being sent to hospitals had labels printed from the app.

“It was just super rewarding to realize, hey, I kind of made a difference,” Houghton said.

He said that for projects to be meaningful to an intern, they must have a purpose, with people relying on and using the work product.

“If you have that sense of purpose, it just makes you more motivated,” Houghton said. “I also believe that there has to be an element of something new because as an intern, you want to learn something new, whether it's working with new technology, working with new people. It's what actually motivates people to do things, learning something new, because who doesn't want to be a pioneer?”

Barry Isett & Associates is a multi-discipline engineering and consulting firm based in Allentown whose services include the design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and replacement of facilities. The firm makes sure interns are making contributions to projects that are occurring in their specialty, whether that’s environmental science, construction management, or civil engineering, Arruda said.

“What we don't want is for the interns to come in with not a lot to do, a lot of paperwork, a lot of busy work,” he said. “And it just so happens that we build the communities around us in a meaningful way. And the interns get to contribute into that process directly. The work products that they produce get captured and brought into actual products.”

He said interns are on work sites performing tasks such as taking measurements and observations that they download into the system and then discuss with department heads.

Bertie said the projects he has worked on have been meaningful, and he has the support necessary to guide him.

“I’ve done a lot of different things throughout the office such as bid reviews, spec writing, completion tickets, punch lists, reviews, field reports,” he said.

Arruda said interns perform billable work, with Bertie’s name appearing on invoices, “which gives him a real sense of ownership and also really helps our firm.”

Editor’s Note: Next week’s newsletter will feature another article that delves into more detail about the importance of mentorships during internships.