Fifty-two students applied for the 2014 internship program and each applicant was overwhelmingly qualified for the positions. This year the UNH-IOL had raised enough funds to support the hiring of eight students for the program.
The eight selected students were a valuable addition to the UNH-IOL team for their seven weeks in the lab, according to many of the lab’s staff.
“Intern selection process was difficult due to the caliber of the applicant pool,” Samantha Martell, the Academic Coordinator at the UNH-IOL, said. “The eight interns selected excelled throughout this internship, and confirmed that we had indeed selected the right candidates. During the seven weeks of the internship, the interns were put to the test while not only completing the work in their consortiums, but also by attending eight site visits to companies in the technology industry.”
The UNH-IOL High School Summer Internship Program offers academically outstanding candidates an opportunity to earn money while they gain invaluable experience working with global networking companies including: Cisco, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Apple and many others.
“Every year our applicant pool grows by at least 20 percent and this year we had a record number of female students apply,” Snow said. “I believe this was impacted by our outreach activities in local high schools and our engagement with events such as High Technology Day at UNH, UNH Tech Camps and Engineerista's, Girls Technology Day and IOL sponsored workshops.”
The seven-week program for high school students presents an overview of computer networking technology and offering hands-on experiences in an industry impacting facility. Summer Interns are exposed to the computer science, electrical engineering and computer engineering programs offered by the University of New Hampshire.
The interns work with the experienced staff at the UNH-IOL that includes student technicians, industry professionals and corporate vendors on site for testing.
“Our 2014 interns were highly motivated, fully engaged in the culture of the IOL,” Suzanne Snow, the Marketing and Communications Manager at the UNH-IOL, said. “They rose above and beyond expectations with respect to their efforts in project work and collaboration within the lab. This cohort demonstrated a high level of professionalism, interest and knowledge while visiting and working industry partners and other stakeholders involved in the program.”
The UNH-IOL will continue their successful STEM outreach within the community in its 10th year when offering the High School Summer Internship Program in 2015.
“We would like to thank our returning sponsors, CA Technologies, Liberty Mutual Insurance, QA Cafe and our new sponsors, Hewlett Packard, Fidelity Investments and Eric Lynskey, a UNH-IOL Alumnus,” said Martell. “Their contributions make it all possible.”
Learn more about the 2015 High School Summer Internship Program, or Contact Us for more information.