Internship Program Curriculum

The i.c.stars curriculum consists of three intensive projects that allow program participants to become skilled technology professionals with impressive leadership credentials. Participants work on various assignments over a 16 week internship before entering a two-year residency and fellowship program and receiving merit-based employment while earning an associates degree.

Project based training is at the core of our approach. The three main projects help our interns build technical proficiency and leadership skills. With more than 300 learning objectives and 1,000 hours of hands-on practical business experience, our interns gain expertise in business, information technology and social media platforms.

The projects also incorporate a leadership focus and lectures that are designed to build emotional intelligence and a reflective awareness of social contexts. Our interns develop three primary competencies—gift giving and receiving, communication, and metacognition—through our integrated leadership curriculum. The training prepares individuals with the behaviors, values and attitudes that will enable them to be more effective in serving their communities, clients and employers.

Participants work in teams on all three projects:

• Corporate IT RFP Competition—Each year one of our CIO sponsors hosts an RFP competition for i.c.stars interns.
• Technology Commercialization Client—An exercise where participants work in teams to develop a business concept and meet with a Venture Capital firm seeking to invest in one of them.
• Constituent Relationship Management (CRM)/Social Network Engagement—Each training cycle works with a non-profit organization to build a CRM/Social Network.