Assessment and Evaluation of an Internship Program

Assessment and Evaluation of an Internship Program

Yanika Patterson

Capella University

December 10, 2013

Dr. Ozella Barnes

A Safe Place

2710 17th Street

Zion, IL 60099

Dear Dr. Barnes,

My name is Yanika Patterson. I am currently a graduate student at Capella University majoring in Adult education. As a part of the curriculum, I am to present an assessment plan to you. I would like to present an assessment plan in regards to the internship program.

There is so much value in assessing interns. An assessment can help an agency identify the strengths and weaknesses of the interns. If the assessment plan incorporates feedback and deliverables, it will help interns to be motivated to continue doing good work or to work at their weaknesses. Assessments can help staff find areas of different processes and learning opportunities that may need updating. Those are just a few reasons why an assessment should be implemented at your facility. Adding assessment to the agency’s strategic plan can also help with getting across the importance of an assessment. Using the assessment process for the internship program may be used as a springboard to access other areas of the agency (Banta, Jones, and Black, 2009).

An assessment of the internship program is necessary. More and more schools are making internships a requirement to graduate. Internships give students invaluable experience and information as they start their careers in their specific field. It would be wise to make sure that the resources and education will benefit them. Assessment needs to be used to make sure that the interns are using the information received in classes correctly and effectively at the site. The process of assessment will allow the agency to really look at what interns do and how the agency helps to get the intern to achieve the outcomes. It will allow for both entities to improve upon the teaching-learning responsibility of an internship (Banta Jones, Black 2009)

A good model that can be used to achieve this assessment is one that was performed at California State University, Sacramento. The student affairs division wanted to become data-driven. I believe that is the direction your organization is going. I think the technique they implemented with having each department identify one learning outcome it would like their students to achieve is one I can see working here (Castillion and Varlotta, 2009).

The assessment plan has been included for you to read over to decide if this is something you would like to be involved in. if you have any questions, please feel free to contact