Improving Access to Internships with an On-Campus Software Development Center

Internships are widely recognized as a high-impact educational practice that effectively prepares students for successful careers in the computing industry. Unfortunately, not all students have equal access to computing internships. Students are often expected to find internships independently, but their classes generally do not teach them the skills needed to search for computing internships or to succeed in a technical interview. Furthermore, at a university in a rural area with little or no public transportation, students may not be able to accept an internship offer unless they have a car and enough time to travel to and from a work site in a nearby city. These problems are especially severe for students of opportunity (e.g., students with low socioeconomic status, first-generation students): the exact students for whom an internship can have the greatest impact. To address this problem, our university is starting a software development center to provide campus-based internships in which student teams develop software products for clients. Students hired by the center will benefit from dedicated workspace on or near our campus, ongoing training in common software development practices (e.g., version control, project management, requirements engineering) that are not covered consistently in a classroom setting, and on-site mentoring from experienced software professionals. We believe that this co-curricular experience will improve participants' ability to begin and persist in a career in software development after graduation. We will discuss our experience with several pilot projects and our vision and goals for the center.