Program Components
Montioring and Reporting
Sandra King, principal at STKING Associates, has served as the program liaison and managed the coordination of the students and their employers during each session of
the CVP Career Academy. King established a weekly reporting process that included weekly check-ins by the students on Thursdays and follow up with the employers every other Thursday. Each Friday, a written report was submitted to KAGE and UMass Boston. The report included an overview of the week's activities and experiences as well as feedback from students and employers (where appropriate). Any issues that arose with either the students or employers was shared, discussed and addressed in a timely manner. King acted as a mentor to both the students and the employers.
Work Experience
The interns all had meaningful and valuable work experience while engaged with their respective firms. This was guided by the development of a comprehensive position description along with goals for the 10-week program. At the outset of each session, the employers and students work jointly to create and agree on the details of the work plan.
Presentation Workshop
Each year, the interns had the opportunity to participate in professional development workshops to improve their presentation and writing skills. Jack Rossin and Diane Ripstein, two professional presentation instructors, led a multi-day presentation workshop at the midpoint of the program. Diane has more than 20 years of media and communications experience and provides custom public speaking and presentation training. Jack has spent 30 years in communications, working in television, advertising and marketing. Every student prepared a short presentation that was filmed so they could assess their performance and improve.
Professional Writing Workshop
• Each intern submitted an initial writing assignment at the outset of the program
that described what they anticipated learning through the summer internship
experience.
• All writing assignments were reviewed and critiqued by Kurt Klopmeier, a
writing instructor and tutor with several years of experience at both UMass
Boston and Northeastern University
• During the orientation a professional business writing and protocol workshop
focused on email etiquette, professional writing, and general professional
expectations for the internship program.
1021