The ATLAS Internship Program is flourishing! The program has grown from 8 students in Spring 2016 to more than 50 interns in Spring 2018. Students are excited about the program with more than 50% choosing to participate in multiple semesters. Internship clients are extremely pleased with our students, with one of our undergrad teams outperforming a graduate student team from another campus.
For those who may not be familiar with our program, the ATLAS Internship Program is an initiative to give LAS undergrads hands-on experience with technology before they graduate. The projects and type of technology used varies by intern. Any student at Illinois will meet our minimum technology requirement, any additional tech skills will be acquired through the internship.
Our client base where students are placed continues to grow. We are partnering with a wide variety of clients with diverse projects to offer our interns. In the past two years, we have had only two interns placed in traditional tech support roles (assisting with broken computers, etc.) ATLAS is only hosting about a dozen students within ATLAS, the majority are placed with our clients. Our next area of client growth is expected to be with local non-profit organizations and local small businesses.
If you would to learn more about our program, please contact us at atlas-internships@illinois.edu