Why Measuring Internship Quality Matters

"If we want to be student-centered, I suggest we start where students are productively learning -- outside of school at the edges, mingling with people they want to learn from, inventing, discovering, creating, and seeking to understand." - Elliot Washor

As Elliot describes, we believe out-of-school learning opportunities are key to student passion. We also believe they can lead to life-changing gains in social capital.

But here’s the thing - the experience still has to be high quality. A poor internship - whether because of a bad fit between student and mentor, lack of interest in the work, or lack of opportunity for meaningful learning - can be as lackluster as a boring day at school for a student.

How does ImBlaze help with this problem? By making it easy to collect authentic data.

Using ImBlaze’s custom check in and check out questions, you can organically collect data - at scale - without having to harass students to fill out a survey. Once a quarter, consider turning on the following questions for 1-2 weeks for *both* mentor and student.

On a scale of 1 - 5 how would you rate your relationship with your mentor?

(1 - I'm looking forward to never seeing them again -----> 5 - this person is changing my life)

On a scale of 1 - 5, how relevant to your curiosities and interests is your internship site?

1 - everything people do here bores me ------> 5 - everything people do here excites me

1 - the student doesn't seem interested in anything I do -----> 5 - the student seems excited about everything I do

On a scale of 1 - 5, how exciting is the work you get to do at your internship?

1 - it's all so boring ---> 5 - it's the coolest work I've ever been a part of

As always, feel free to fit them to your school or organizations desired outcomes.