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Internships and Reverse Mentoring

Summer is long over and now we are getting into the fall. This time of year always makes me look back on the summer internships. I’m a big believer in “internships” as a way for people to “learn”. Each summer, we bring in interns across a wide range of disciplines: technical, legal, marketing and this year social media.

This years interns were impressive.

Over the years – I use interns to be my pulse on what is happening in the education system. In my previous role, I would select two and have them stay at my house. For their internship, they would report to someone else. At night – it was the barrage of constant questions. Why must we do something a certain way? Why aren’t we doing this?

Most people think I’m nuts for even doing this. I learn so much. It’s a process I call “reverse mentoring”

And what did I learn??

While there have always been over-achievers,  the “mass” of the students are not being prepared for what I call the innovation or creative economy.

The world is shifting from the information/knowledge economy to the innovation/creative economy. Its about have a workforce that can “invent” solutions to the worlds problems then having the other people “manufacture” what they invent.

To be successful in the innovation economy, students must have:

* Critical thinking skills

* Problem solving experiences

* Entreprenurship / Instrapraneurship skills

* Have confidence …

* Understand the process to create and idea and then take it forward through execution

So how do we give future generations that experiences they need?

In my mind, we need to raise the visibility and prestige for our top academic students to the same level we give athletes. One person is doing that is Dean Kamen, Founder of FirstRobotics  whose missions is:

.. to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.

Dean and I have a met a few times at different events and I can tell you he is passionate about giving every kid the experience and opportunity to discover their passion.

Guests: Peter Lierni and Mark Varricchione are co-founders from STEMlete

Peter Lierni and Mark Varricchione are co-founders from STEMlete (a play on the word “athlete”) who saw that there were a number of online communities for the self-promotion of student athletes seeking to: exhibit their athletic excellence; share their knowledge; improve their performance; get recognized; establish a following; and be recruited and succeed; however, there was nothing analogous for those individuals who have a passion and brilliance in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).

They are a on a mission to change the focus; build a new kind of community; identify the world’s most promising STEM talent; and enable innovation by providing an online platform with an unprecedented collection of free capabilities to enable “STEMletes” to globally connect; communicate; collaborate; and create. In particular, they hope to give academia, industry, and others globally the opportunity to get an early line-of-sight into the world’s most promising STEM talent.

You can connect with them at STEMlete.org

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