Successes from the 2020 summer internship
2020 has been an interesting year to say the least. There have been so many unexpected challenges and changes to our everyday lives at home, at work and at school. Covid-19 may have thrown a few roadblocks in our path, but it didn’t stop us from having a great internship experience with some local students this summer.
Though we made many modifications for this summer, we still saw some excellent learning, professional growth, and progress on our projects across four different cities in the region. We received some great feedback from this year’s intern class about their experience, so we wanted to share some of our wins from this summer.
Intern Communications
We love to keep in touch with our interns throughout the school year. Each month leading up to their start date in May, interns receive specific communications to keep them informed of important information, deadlines, and what is going on at McCownGordon. This year, we started an which also highlights some of our projects and testimonials from former interns. Sign up for our newsletter.
Check out an example of the intern newsletter here!
Intern Orientation
One of our favorite times of the year is the kickoff of our Intern Orientation. Typically, we invite all of our interns to join us at our HQ in Kansas City, MO for orientation, but in order to keep each other safe and follow health and safety guidelines, we hosted a hybrid orientation experience. Interns got to hear from leaders and trainers from each of our regional offices, and they had an opportunity to pick the brains of the former-interns-turned-full-time-associates who were most recently in their shoes in the format of a virtual panel. It was a great time for interns to build relationships with the others in each city and to learn the foundation of what it means to be part of the McCownGordon Team.
Project tours
One of the highest praised elements of the McCownGordon internship program is the opportunity interns have to conduct and experience project tours from each of the other interns. About every other Friday during the internship, we gather all the interns to visit project sites. Each intern gives a brief presentation about their project and hosts a site tour. Our departmental interns (Estimating, Safety, Marketing, IT) also give brief presentations about what they have been working on for the summer. Tour days are a great way for interns to be exposed to other types and phases of projects as well as other departments within the organization.
Time with leadership
The Leadership team at McCownGordon is involved in the recruitment and selection process for the summer internship program, so they love to invest some time getting to know the interns throughout the summer. This year, our interns had the opportunity to meet for lunch with the leadership team, spend time one-on-one or in small groups with our CEO, and share about their internship experience with our senior leaders at their final presentation at the end of the summer. These opportunities allowed the interns to gain valuable networking skills and build their professional presence, all while getting to know the senior leaders of the company.
Despite some new challenges, we had a fantastic summer with the 2020 interns. The successes from our 2020 Internship program are just a glimpse of what it’s like to spend a summer with our team. The McCownGordon team continues to develop creative new ways to provide a world-class internship experience each year, and we can’t wait to see what the summer of 2021 will bring.
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