Term Papers: An evaluation of the Research Internships in Science and Engineering
An evaluation of the Research Internships in Science and Engineering (RISE) program conducted by the Institute of International Education (IIE) for the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), over the span of six months, gathered data to gauge recent and long-term impacts of the program. The Rise program funds and supports the placement of Canadian and U.S. science and engineering undergraduates for summer internships and research opportunities in German higher education institutions
There are many stakeholders associated with this evaluation. The Canadian and U.S. undergraduates participating in the program are two stakeholder groups representing their countries. A few others are the German Ph.D students who acted as mentors, alumni of the program from previous years, and the families of the interns. The family’s opinions can impact an intern’s performance, even if it’s from across the world
Stakeholders often have different aims for one program. In the RISE program, the interns want the program to succeed to gather valuable information via experience in the science and engineering field. The mentors may wish the program’s success to gain positive advertising for the school and their department. Positive advertising means higher enrollment numbers and more funding. If an evaluator only focuses on one stakeholder, then the other stakeholders will be upset that their opinions are being ignored. Knowing all the stakeholders and what they wish to gain from the evaluation tells the evaluator what information to gather. This could also cause stakeholders to give inaccurate information to the evaluator to fulfill their own agenda
