Creating Quality Internship Experiences

At the Linked Learning Alliance Convention, INTERNNECT will be presented as a case study for a high quality internship experience model.

Presentation
NCARB Architecture Experience Program
INTERNNECT | Design Lab
The Porterville Recorder | Harmony Magnet Wins Design Competition

The Academy of Engineering Pathway at Harmony Magnet Academy recently took first place in the INTERNNECT 2K16 Design Competition that featured designing a Wellness Innovation Learning Center for the Tulare County Office of Education (TCOE).

INTERNNECT is a collaborative intern process that was developed between Mangini Associates, Inc., TCOE and Porterville Unified School District in 2010, according to a press release.
The internship’s goal is to expand the original pilot group into a cohort of several teams represented by school districts across multiple counties “who will learn and prosper together".

Read more.
TCOE News Gallery | INTERNNECT Offers Real World Experience

Working with the Tulare County Office of Education as a client, students from architecture and engineering academies at El Diamante High School (Visalia), Harmony Magnet Academy (Strathmore), Lindsay High School, Orosi High School and Redwood High School (Visalia) recently designed a theoretical Wellness Innovation Learning Center – a facility for students to learn about personal and community wellness. Additionally, the project helps students consider the connection between wellness and natural agricultural resources, such as soil and water systems.

"I am continually inspired by the work of all the INTERNNECT student design teams,” said TCOE’s Joy Soares, College and Career director. “Each team demonstrated their ability to create, design, collaborate and deliver a quality engineering proposal that is confirmed by industry and post-secondary partners. This opportunity is more than many college students are given in their undergraduate education. INTERNNECT is definitely a rigorous and relevant college and career readiness approach.”

“What I loved about the INTERNNECT project this year was the abundance of evidence of deeper learning,” said Lesley Taylor, a member of the California Department of Education School Facilities Staff. “I was especially impressed with the team from Orosi High School and the mobile app that they created as a companion piece to their design proposal. I loved that they created a way to transfer information and knowledge to their peers who weren't involved with the project.”

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The Foothills Sun-Gazette | Lindsay Students Engineer their Future

A group of students from Lindsay High School’s Academy of Engineering recently took second place in a design competition held by INTERNNECT and the Tulare County Office of Education.  The contest was for the design of a new Wellness Learning Center for students, to be built behind the new TCOE building on Mooney Boulevard in Visalia. The competition is part of the effort to link learning with careers.

“Students are developing and building their employability skills,” said Joy Soares, college and career readiness director with TCOE.

Read more.
REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS: INTERNNECT 2K16

We are starting our design competition again this year and invite schools to start formulating their teams.  Statement of Qualifications have been extended to October 28, 2015.  Check out the flyer and visit the 2K16 Projects for more information.

Let's get started!
(Image above from left to right: top row - Jeff Brown, Mike Henson, Dr. John Snavely; bottom row - Cindy Brown, Gilbert Bareng)

(Image below from left to right: Gilbert Bareng, Randy Wallace)
INCEPTION, GROWTH, AND RECOGNITION

INTERNNECT was born through the willingness to try something new and different.

A few years out of Cal Poly, my colleague, Clay Taylor, and I reached out to a new Academy of Engineering in its second year of business.  We had ambitions to bring back to our Central Valley roots all of the creative and innovative architectural ideas we learned from one of the best Design Schools in the nation.  According to DesignIntelligence, California Polytechnic State University's Architecture program was recognized as the No. 1 Undergraduate School in Architecture in 2014, competing with prestigious schools of Cornell University, Rice University, University of Texas at Austin, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.  Cal Poly continues to display their credential, consistently holding the nation's top 20 list since 2003 with a ranking of sixth or better.

As the Architect who designed Harmony Magnet Academy for Porterville Unified School District, it was a natural fit for Mangini Associates Inc. to provide high school engineering students mentorship experiences, bringing business into the classroom.  At the time, Cindy Brown, Vice Principal under the direction of Mike Henson, Principal gave us the opportunity to work with their Harmony students.  In 2010, the new engineering academy accepted our proposal to teach their students the art in architecture and engineering from a different perspective.  It was a success!

The excitement of our efforts grew with enthusiasm.  We asked Dr. John Snavely, Superintendent of Porterville Unified School District, Mentor District for Tulare Kings Linked Learning Consortium and Randy Wallace, then Director of College and Career for Tulare County Office of Education for their support in growing this process to a regional scale.  In acceptance of our partnership, the idea of INTERNNECT was conceptualized.

During the development of our INTERNNECT project, there was a shift in leadership at the educational level.  Mike Henson moved on to become the Director of District Engagement for NAF, a national network of education, business, and community leaders who work together to ensure high school students are college, career, and future ready.  Cindy Brown became the Director of Student Pathways for Porterville Unified School District.  In 2009, PUSD was named a recipient of a grant from the James Irvine Foundation awarded to only six districts in California to develop a district-wide system of career-themed pathways.  Since that time, PUSD has expanded its pathway options to now offer several "Open-Choice" career-themed pathways for high school students.  In 2011, the James Irvine Foundation granted additional funding to continue the work of transforming education.

With the vision and support of Jim Vidak, Superintendent of Tulare County Office of Education, Randy Wallace now spearheads an industry-led regional intermediary group through his current leadership as the Executive Director for INNOVATE Tulare Kings, an employer-driven intermediary to support the Tulare-Kings Linked Learning Consortium and provide guidance for the region as we further develop our Linked Learning Pathways.  This initiative is funded in large part by the California Career Pathways Trust and early investments made by the Tulare County Office of Education and the Workforce Investment Board of Tulare County.  In 2015, ITK received another investment from the James Irvine Foundation to support the Tulare Kings Regional Hub of Excellence.

We have learned that design thinking does not need to be isolated within the Architectural community.  INTERNNECT allows a large group of people to come together and provide the much needed work-force opportunity for our students.  The INTERNNECT network is made up of business partners from several industry sectors including Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Healthcare, and Agriculture.  Educational and governmental organizations at local, regional, state, and federal levels can be scaled down to a manageable collaborative, and intermediaries weave this fabric of communication that ties everyone together.

Our efforts as a community, have been recognized at a national scale, and we can't thank our stakeholders enough for allowing us to work alongside with educators to develop the creative minds of our future leaders.  We hope to ignite the passion for their career dreams so that they will never work a day in their lives.

Message from the Chair of INNOVATE Tulare Kings
INTERNNECT

The mission of this process is to create a sense of community ownership over the development of our future employees and leaders, learning from our school districts in an effort to enhance learning environments through virtual and physical experiences.

INTERNNECT Video
NAF NEXT 2015
INTERNNECT - An Innovative Work-Based Learning Model

Learn about INTERNNECT, an exemplary work-based learning model that brings business partners into the classroom through an authentic interdisciplinary project.  This scalable program provides innovative and high quality regional internship opportunities.  Students are mentored by post-secondary students and professionals from multiple industry sectors.  Informal externships provide educators the industry insight needed to make our students college and career ready.

Presentation Material
LINKED LEARNING ALLIANCE

This unprecedented level of engagement, combined with the outpouring of financial support, will help ensure that Linked Learning will continue to transform high school education in the Central Valley and will also ultimately impact the future of success of our workforce and California's economy.

Linked Learning Gaining Momentum
NATIONAL ACADEMY FOUNDATION

Work-Based Learning Exemplars: Worthwhile Internship Experiences for Students, Local Employers, and the Community.

NAF WBL Exemplars
TULARE COUNTY OFFICE OF EDUCATION

School to Career and SEE Youth Programs put 128 students to work this summer.  "Doug Murdock and Raymond Almanza pose in the conference room of Mangini Associates Architects in Visalia.  The students pose behind a model of the Porterville site they propose to use for a new Polytechnic State University focused on research in the fields of energy generation and water conservation."

TCOE SEE Youth Student Employment