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Internship Inventory

The Career Development Center at Appalachian State provides valuable resources to help students in planning for and finding employment by hosting job fairs and clinics for students and alumni. The Center also manages and oversees internships for enrolled students seeking course credit.

Problem Analysis

The Career Development Center cited the following reasons for needing the Inventory:

  • The Center needed to organize, compile, and track internship information and make it available for all authorized personnel.
  • In case of emergency, contact information needed to be easily accessible for both faculty members and University administrators.
  • To prevent liability issues, the University needed to ensure that only faculty members who have been delegated 'Signature Authority' from the Provost were allowed to sign the contract on behalf of the University.
  • Due to Federal legislation, the University must be authorized to operate in a state where a student is seeking to receive credit for an out-of-state internship. The Center needed a way to ensure the University was not granting academic credit for internships in unauthorized states.

Why ESS?

The Career Development Center realized that this problem would be resolved more effectively by using a web application that would benefit the entire University. Because software that fulfilled the need did not exist, ESS was selected to create a custom application.

Results

The Inventory solved the existing problems through the following:

  • The software is designed with a clean interface and clearly labeled controls to enhance usability for everyone.
  • Students and faculty are guided step-by-step through the internship process with a checklist to ensure all qualifications are met.
  • A contract generator, direct links to the Registrar, and an information tracker further standardize the process.
  • Data is organized, easy to find, and stored within the Inventory.

The software has revolutionized and simplified the way AppState does internships, and is available as open-source software for other universities to use. Students can now receive credit for their internships quickly and easily.

To learn about more of the applications ESS has created, visit our Solution Development page.