Virginia Tech
Exploring Programmatic Elements, Learning, and Sense of Belonging in an Engineering Internship Program
Abstract
dc:description.abstractIn engineering and STEM, internships are upheld as "high impact" practices and recommended to students by faculty, staff, and peers. Furthermore, there is a significant amount of research focused on the positive outcomes and benefits of participating in internship programs. Due to the calls to increase the quality and quantity of internships for students, it is important to explore and deepen our understanding of students' experiences in such programs. Through this dissertation, I explored engineering undergraduate students' experiences in a particular research-focused internship program. Specifically, I explored the influence of programmatic elements on students' experiences, students' perceptions of situated learning, and students' perceptions of sense of belonging in relation to their intent to return. The overarching study and resulting manuscripts provide additional detail to underlying phenomena and mechanisms that contributed to students' experiences in one program. The two most salient findings from the overarching study were the importance of both social interaction and learning in students' experiences. This work suggests key questions for practitioners and those who work with STEM students or internship programs. Future work should be conducted to continue to explore students' experiences in engineering internships and to continue to increase our understanding of how to better educate and train our students.
Degree
thesis:*- Name thesis:degree_name
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Level thesis:degree_level
- doctoral
- Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
- Engineering Education
- Department dc:contributor.department
- Engineering Education
- Grantor dc:publisher
- Virginia Tech
- Year dc:date.issued
- 2024
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Vicente, Sophia
- Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
-
- Matusovich, Holly
- Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
-
- Sajadi, Susan
- McNair, Elizabeth D.
- Gersie, Wayne M.
Subjects
dc:subject × 4Rights
dc:rights- Statement dc:rights
-
- In Copyright
- Licence dc:rights.uri
- Language dc:language.iso
- en
Identifiers
dc:identifier.*- Dc Identifier Other
- vt_gsexam:40652
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/119403