Two things I’d add to the above answer (which I agree with):
RP surveyed both interns and their managers at the end of the program, which provided a bunch of useful takeaways for future internships. (Many of which are detailed or idiosyncratic and so will be useful to us but aren’t in the above reply.) I’d say other internship programs should do the same.
I’d personally also suggest surveying the interns and maybe managers at the start of the internship to get a “baseline” measure of things like interns’ clarity on their career plans and managers’ perceived management skills, then asking similar questions at the end, so that you can later see how much the internship program benefitted those things. Of course this should be tailored to the goals of a particular program.
What lessons we should pass on to other orgs / research training programs will vary based on the type of org, type of program, cause area focus, and various other details. If someone is actually running or seriously considering running a relevant program and would be interested in lessons from RP’s experience, I’d suggest they reach out! I’d be happy to chat, and I imagine other RP people might too.
Two things I’d add to the above answer (which I agree with):
RP surveyed both interns and their managers at the end of the program, which provided a bunch of useful takeaways for future internships. (Many of which are detailed or idiosyncratic and so will be useful to us but aren’t in the above reply.) I’d say other internship programs should do the same.
I’d personally also suggest surveying the interns and maybe managers at the start of the internship to get a “baseline” measure of things like interns’ clarity on their career plans and managers’ perceived management skills, then asking similar questions at the end, so that you can later see how much the internship program benefitted those things. Of course this should be tailored to the goals of a particular program.
What lessons we should pass on to other orgs / research training programs will vary based on the type of org, type of program, cause area focus, and various other details. If someone is actually running or seriously considering running a relevant program and would be interested in lessons from RP’s experience, I’d suggest they reach out! I’d be happy to chat, and I imagine other RP people might too.