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Advice for Host Organizations

Work with CEI to determine what level of student you require. Define clear objectives with measurable outcomes and timelines for both yourself and the student. No student can be a “cure-all,” so also need to consider how you will integrate their work upon their return to school, so the project effort isn’t lost.

Have clear deliverables and have thought out what it is you want the intern to accomplish, to learn, and to contribute. How are you going to manage them? How will they benefit your organization/project/program? What’s in it for them and for you? What is their work plan? Where will you find the money for the other half? Use the opportunity to create a relationship with the matching funder.

Don’t try to fit the student to the organization. Find a match between the student’s areas of skill and experience and your organizational needs. Non profits have a lot of needs and when we interviewed the candidates we outlined 4 projects that they could work on. We asked them to choose two that they would be most interested in taking on and tell us why. Through this exercise we were able to find the person who was most interested/experienced in our greatest need and the fit was like a glove!

Be prepared, be focused and let the student learn & grow.