Shifting Exposure at

Kenya Staley @Kenyastaley

Behind every project are the people who help put it together and for the past three years Ted Younglove has assisted in spearheading the STEM internship program. Younglove’s vision for the program has grown significantly since it started three years ago. He stated that his role in the internship has not been at the forefront, “I helped start it by selecting a few places to put interns. My role in the grant is more of the statistical and predictive modeling, which is a different component. With the internships I do want to get more involved next summer because one of the harder areas to find internships is math.” He mentioned that it’s vital for him to find math centered internships next year because they’re usually only offered to post-grad or ph.D students. However, he expressed the importance of adding a statistical surveying group internship rather than a math internship focused on teaching because not everyone is interested in curriculum.

Younglove was inspired to partner with the journalism program by his own history with writing. As a former journalism major at the University of California, Riverside he understood the importance of allowing the two programs to work closely together - not to mention, the exposure the students would get for their hard work. “What we wanted was experiential learning where you make scientists by making them do science. The internships are very extensive, so you can completely change someone’s life or they might discover they don’t even enjoy what they’re doing.” Through personal experience, Younglove recognizes the potential importance of internships. He expressed his gratitude for the sites that have gone above and beyond for the interns. Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden offered Tiffany Larrabee and Jocelyn Gonzalez additional hours this summer so they could really immerse themselves in botany. This is the ideal internship experience Linda Lamp and Ted Younglove set out for. Prior to the summer program, Chaffey College faculty took the extra steps to screen potential internship sites for any red flags that pointed to an unsuccessful internship. It was vital interns were not subjected to solely running errands, getting coffee or doing anything that didn’t fall underneath experiential learning. It’s clear that everyone behind the program is passionate about seeing Chaffey students evolving through their careers.

“Being able to provide our students a worthwhile experience is what we set out for so we’re happy that’s what we’ve gotten,” Younglove concluded.