Growing And Wandering:the "Unconventional" Internship Stories Of Elite College Students

The design is an in-depth report focusing on the “unconventional” internship stories of elite college students.Conventionally,autonomous internship refers that junior or senior students look for their internships independently and build service relations with the companies in which one side provides labor activities and the other side pays an agreed-upon fee.Recently,some “unconventional” internships have arisen,including premature internships,unpaid internships,and subsidized internships.The design aims to explore the individual stories and generation mechanisms of“unconventional” internships to reflect on the current internship environment and to provide suggestions for its optimization.Through in-depth interviews,the design interviews 10 elite college students who have experienced “unconventional” internships,an internship agency,a company supervisor,a human resources expert,a college counsellor and university professors.The design unfolds the reasons for elite college students choosing “unconventional”internships,and explores the formation mechanism of “unconventional” internships and the direction of optimizing the internship environment.Through research,the report finds that the willingness to choose“unconventional” internships vary among elite college students at different times,and all three types of “unconventional” internships have exerted positive and negative influences on the experiencers.To a certain extent,the imbalance between supply and demand in the internship market,the misplaced role of pre-service educators,and the identity anxiety of elite college students all contribute to the formation of“unconventional” internships.A favorable internship environment relies on the joint efforts of schools,companies,government,and students,as well as the implementation of long-term and short-term measures.