CREATING YOUR INTERNSHIP PLAN Suggestions for activities to do before or during the internship Keep in mind that the best activities will come up from interacting with your team members.   Make this mentoring experience a collective project!

Activities MEET & GREET INTERACTIONS From the Greet & Meet During the internship MEET & GREET INTERACTIONS Before diving in, plan a moment to get to know your interns and to have them talk a little! Book a moment at the end of the day to exchange about what has been done and what was more or less appreciated by the interns (mini-evaluation). Take the time to do a make a round allowing for everyone to introduce themselves. Book a moment to discuss: Your educational background Your team members career path The more traditional pathways in your work field, the schools that offer these programs The skills & qualities sought in your field The school topics/classes that have best served you starting your career Encourage interns to start a conversation with the team members or with others from other departments by challenging them to answer a pre-set quiz: one’s favourite sport, a colleague’s number of children, the favourite color of each member, etc.

Activities IMPLEMENTATION From the Greet & Meet During the internship IMPLEMENTATION Introduce your company, its mission & values, the past and current projects. What are your responsibilities? Give them a tour of other departments. In a group internship, do not hesitate to divide the interns into smaller groups to make them think about different topics or to work on certain projects. Discuss with your interns about their expectations for their week of internship. Go over the Internship Plan together, and briefly explain how you’ve built it and the reason why you chose to do these activities. Ask your interns if there is an activity in particular they are looking forward to do. Introduce the team members and their respective tasks & responsibilities.

Activities OBSERVATION RELATED TO YOUR PROFESSION From the Greet & Meet During the internship OBSERVATION RELATED TO YOUR PROFESSION Do not change anything about your routine! On the contrary, keep it the same and keep your interns close to you whenever you’re reading your emails or consulting the news related to your work field. It is always good to show all the facets of your job for them to wrap their head around it.  Take advantage of your interns’ presence to inform your network. And, why not get them involved creating content upon their arrival within the organization? Write a blog post Publish on social networks Write up a newsletter to your partners on what has been learnt over the internship week thanks to your implication as a mentor. Get them to attend a team meeting or to observe an interaction between colleagues discussing a file. Ask them to learn about a subject related to your work field and do research online. Bring your interns on the field (for example: a client meeting, a visit, etc.). Make them work on a hypothetical project. Make them apply concepts learnt over the internship week to a project they have developed themselves. Present your interns with some of your organization's past projects. Explain the lessons learned and the challenges overcome. Encourage them to do research on the ecosystem surrounding your organization or your work field (For example: professional orders, clusters, training opportunities, etc.) Plan a presentation for your team, hosted by the interns, about their internship week and the projects they’ve accomplished.

Let your creativity run wild! Activities From the Greet & Meet During the internship SPECIFIC TO SOME WORK FIELDS OTHER IDEAS Administration & Accounting: Budgeting your school year – evaluating how much your parents pay for your education. Creating a communication plan to best maximize interacting with a young crowd their age. Doing a market research or a benchmarking on organizations or initiatives similar to yours. Administration & Accounting: Running practice interviews, writing up a resume, opening up a LinkedIn Account. Conducting a survey within the team members. Food: Creating a recipe. Let your creativity run wild! Arts, Culture & Media: Recording a program or reportage, or a sound design Information Technology: Creating an app project or Web programming. Marketing, Commerce, Sales & Communications: Organizing a hypothetical event and planning for your social media, or else.