Micro-internships and Career Focused Programs as Mechanisms for Diversifying Computing

The demand for computing talent is at an all-time high, but not everyone feels equally welcome or has equal access to pursue opportunities in technology fields. Women, non-binary, Black, Hispanic/Latino/a/x, and first-generation students are the least likely to have access to paid undergraduate internships that lead to job opportunities in technology companies. This experience report discusses two programs designed to address the lack of internships among historically excluded populations: a micro-internship program and a career program. We present data showing the role that each program played in creating professional pathways for racially diverse undergraduate women and non-binary students. Both programs prepare these undergraduates for professional environments by exposing them to tech careers and developing their social capital through professional networking. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected as well as summer employment plans to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. We present the short- and long-term impact of each program on students' career interests and sense of belonging in computing. A summary of lessons learned from implementing each program are also shared for stakeholders interested in designing similar programs.


INTRODUCTION
The rapid growth in the computing workforce is a direct result of businesses and governments increasing their focus on technology, digitization, and data [1].However, this growing influential workforce does not reflect the diversity of today's U.S. society.In 2018, the Kapor Center's Leaky Tech Pipeline report found that Black individuals comprised just 15% of technical employees in the tech workforce despite earning 21% of computer science (CS) degrees [2].An updated study conducted four years later found no significant increases in the number of Black technical employees [3].The lack of both gender [4] and racial diversity in the tech workforce risks perpetuating existing inequities and biases and stunting the innovative potential of technology.
To address representation gaps in the tech workforce, it is important to consider the connection between post-secondary computing education and computing careers [3].Professional development opportunities provide a myriad of benefits to students interested in pursuing a career in tech [5].For example, summer research [6] and paid internship [7] opportunities increase student retention in computing majors and their likelihood to be offered a job in tech [5][6][7].Internship experiences are also crucial in teaching undergraduate students how to apply their computing knowledge to real-world projects and exposing them to professional networking circles [8].However, recent research shows that women, Black, Hispanic/Latino/a/x, and first-generation college students are less likely to have access to or receive support to pursue these important undergraduate paid internship opportunities [9][10][11][12].
This paper describes efforts at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD) to implement two programs designed to expose racially diverse first-and second-year undergraduate women to the tech workforce through team-oriented and community-based internship opportunities.The first program, Sprinternship, matches undergraduate students with projectbased micro-internships in local tech companies.The second program, Career Launch, mimics Sprinternship by providing undergraduates with resume-worthy, team-based, and projectbased experiences and connecting them with industry mentors.These programs are designed to promote relationship building between both students and employers and prepare racially diverse undergraduate women to pursue careers in tech industries [13].

CAREER PREPARATION PROGRAMS
Micro-internships, which are short-term, paid, projectbased assignments similar to internships, and other professional development learning opportunities (e.g., resume workshops) can increase a student's likelihood to be offered a paid summer internship [4] and create an important on-ramp for women to transition from one tech experience to the next [14] [15].However, undergraduate women, especially first-year undergraduates, have reported lower self-confidence in pursuing computing-related internships compared to men [16].Additionally, Black, Hispanic/Latino/a/x, and first-generation college students often experience hostile internship environments [4][17] [18].We developed the Sprinternship and Career Launch programs to ensure that career professional development workshops and mentoring programs successfully foster student interest in tech careers, lower feelings of imposter syndrome, and explicitly emphasize building a supportive community [13].

OVERVIEW OF PROGRAMS
Sprinternship and Career Launch differ by their structure and implementation.The following section outlines each program in detail.

Sprinternship
The Sprinternship program [19] is a signature strategy of Break Through Tech, a national initiative that works at the intersection of academia and industry to create pathways into tech careers for women and non-binary individuals, with an emphasis on Black, Hispanic/Latina, low-income, and firstgeneration college goers [13].The program targets first-and second-year students enrolled at specific host universities.
Program implementation relies on participating institutions' abilities to coordinate partnerships with both local and national employers.Through these partnerships, Sprinterns take part in a paid, three-week, micro-internship during an academic recess.Organizations create a challenge project for a team of three to five students to solve a real-world problem.Sprinterns work in person or remotely under the direct supervision of company employees and present final projects to company stakeholders.

Career Launch
Career Launch [20] was designed to build a community of undergraduate students interested in tech, encourage near-peer mentoring between undergraduate students, connect students with industry, and provide career preparation at scale.Career Launch was easier to implement because it is less dependent on paid employer partnerships.
Career Launch is a three-week, "choose-your-ownadventure" project-based learning experience, with an optional structured industry mentoring component.Participation was entirely virtual.Students were divided into groups to decide on an area of mutual interest.They were allowed to develop projects in any area of technology and any topic of interest, either working in groups or working independently.Students received a stipend if they completed at least one component of the program -either a tech project or a structured mentoring experience with a tech industry professional.However, they were strongly encouraged to complete both components to better mirror the benefits of a micro-internship.

METHODS
We first implemented Break Through Tech's Sprinternship program in 2022.Due to overwhelming student demand and a limited number of corporate placements, Career Launch was implemented in 2023 alongside the second implementation of the Sprinternship program.Students who applied and were eligible for Sprinternships in 2023 but not selected were offered the opportunity to participate in Career Launch.Demographics for the 2023 programs are provided in Table 1.
Since the broader purpose of both programs is to leverage professional opportunities to increase the representation of racially diverse undergraduate women in tech careers, we developed evaluative tools to help us understand student experiences in each program (short-term, programmatic experiences) and keep track of whether students maintained their intent to pursue a career in computing or not (long term impact).We administered pre-and post-surveys at the beginning and end of each program to inquire about students' sense of belonging in computing and their future career interests.We paid close attention to students' sense of belonging in computing because it is linked to persistence in a CS major [13][14][15].After completing their respective programs, students also received a survey requesting information about subsequent summer internships and other tech employment (annual survey).The specific closed-ended survey items are listed in Table 2 The pre-and post-survey items were analyzed based on whether students changed their answers from pre to post.For ease of analysis and interpretation, responses of somewhat agree/strongly agree and likely/very likely were broadly classified as "positive" responses.The remaining items on each scale were classified as "neutral-negative."Combined pre-post responses were coded as remained negative-neutral, became negative-neutral, remained positive, or became positive (Figure 1).For example, if a student strongly agreed on the pre-survey that "I feel like I belong in computing" but somewhat disagreed with this statement on the post-survey, the combined response was classified as became negative-neutral.If a student strongly agreed on the pre-survey and agreed on the post-survey, they were classified as remained positive.Finally, to provide a more vivid description of student experiences in both Sprinternship and Career Launch, we present qualitative case descriptions [16] of four women (two from each program) and their individual perceptions of the programs, their sense of belonging in computing, and their intent to pursue a major or career in computing.Each case is developed using the four women's pre-, post-, and annual survey responses, including their responses to the closed-ended survey items outlined in Table 2 and open-ended survey items like "Please share how you felt Career Launch contributed to building a sense of community within computing majors" and "Is there anything else you would like to share with us about your Sprinternship experience?"Using an inductive coding approach (Saldana, 2011), we broadly coded for themes related to sense of belonging in computing, future career intent, and personal experiences in the Sprinternship and Career Launch programs.

AFFECTIVE OUTCOMES
The first three survey questions asked students to rate their level of agreement with statements describing attitudes toward computing.Two of these statements expressed positive attitudes: "I feel like I 'belong' in computing" and "I feel welcomed in computing."Students' pre-post responses to both statements were similar for the two programs.In the case of belonging in computing, the majority of participants in the Sprinternship program (97%) and Career Launch (92%) remained or became positive (Figure 2).As for feeling welcomed in computing, the majority of Sprinterns (92%) and Career Launch participants (89%) also remained or became positive (Figure 3).
The third statement expressed a negative attitude: "I feel like an outsider in computing."To more easily compare results with those of the first two statements, we reverse-coded pre-and post-responses to the third statement such that they could be interpreted as a level of agreement with the statement "I DO NOT feel like an outsider in computing."In this case, more than half of the Sprinterns (65%) and Career Launch participants (55%) remained or became positive.In other words, they did not feel like outsiders in computing (Figure 4).The data suggests that even if a student feels that they belong or are welcomed in the computing community, they can simultaneously feel like outsiders.Qualitative interviews are needed to understand the nuances between how students define belonging, being welcomed, and feeling like an outsider in computing.

CAREER INTENT
When asked on the pre-and post-surveys about their likelihood of pursuing a career in computing, all Sprinterns (100%) and Career Launch participants (100%) remained or became positive (Figure 5).Both programs had a high response rate on the annual survey (Table 3).Although a higher percentage of Sprinternship alumni (81%) applied for tech internships or jobs than Career Launch alumni (66%), the same percentage of alumni from both programs were offered a job (76%).

CASE PROFILES
This section outlines the personal experiences of four students: Rei, Maya, Kim, and Alexis (all pseudonyms).

Rei
Rei is an Asian woman and was accepted into the 2023 Sprinternship program as a freshman.She began her Sprinternship journey with an undeclared major.In both her pre-and post-surveys, Rei strongly agreed that she felt she belonged in computing and that she is welcomed in computing.Overall, she found the experience extremely positive and reported that she would "strongly recommend" the program to her peers.She attributes her positive experiences in the program to the social capital that she received from the internship.When asked to reflect any additional thoughts on the program, she shared, "It was a priceless opportunity to expand my professional development experience.Additionally, the connections I made at [Company Name] will certainly follow me throughout my career."In fact, Rei applied for a job at her host company after her microinternship experience, was offered the job, and accepted the job offer.She also reported that the micro-internship was very helpful with strengthening her resume and professional pitches.Despite Rei's highly positive experience in Sprinternship, she reported some neutral/negative responses on her postsurvey.Rei shared that she was only somewhat satisfied with her interactions with her supervisor and human resources department at her host company.She also indicated that she rarely interacted with the company.Nevertheless, she applied for a full-time summer internship at her host company after her micro-internship experience, was offered and accepted that offer.

Maya
Maya is a Black woman majoring in information science.Like Rei, Maya participated in the Sprinternship program as a freshman and reported positive experiences.At the conclusion of her program, she strongly agreed that she feels like she belongs in computing and is welcomed in computing.In terms of feeling like an outsider in computing, Maya said she neither agrees nor disagrees on her pre-survey but switched to somewhat disagree on her post-survey, showing that she felt less like an outsider in the computing community following her Sprinternship experience.She emphasized that the program made her feel like she belonged in computing by sharing, Sprinternship showed me that I belong in computing.It somewhat oriented [me] towards the direction that I need to go to be where I want to be.I definitely need computing skills and now I somewhat know where to get started on my own, Java, python, Go, Script, SQL and a few others.
Maya also reported that the micro-internship experience was "eye opening for me" and "impacted my personal growth a lot."She shared that the micro-internship was useful in developing her resume and professional skills.However, like Rei, she reported that she was not very satisfied with company leadership or the human resources department at her company.Maya did not apply at the host organization because no positions were available.She did apply to other companies but was not offered a job for summer 2023.

Kim
Kim is an Asian woman and an undecided major at the time she began the 2023 Career Launch as a sophomore.She worked on a team project.On her pre-survey, Kim chose neither agree nor disagree for the statements asking if she felt she belonged in computing or was welcomed in computing.She also somewhat agreed that she was an outsider in computing.Her sense of belonging increased following her participation in Career Launch: she strongly agreed that she belonged in computing, somewhat agreed that she was welcome in computing, and somewhat disagreed that she felt like an outsider in computing.Her confidence in learning the foundations and concepts of computing also changed from somewhat agree to strongly agree.
Kim's open response questions on the post-survey provide additional context into changes in her pre/post-survey responses.When asked which aspects of the program worked well for her, she said, I was able to create a project and encouraged to learn about an area I had been interested in but didn't really have the means to explore yet.I also appreciated having many people as resources.
She appreciated the ability to connect her interests with computing.Additionally, she appreciated Career Launch community that she worked with as shown in her comment, "I was able to meet like-minded people and learn from them."Her increased confidence in computing may also be linked to the work she did in Career Launch: We utilized machine learning models to try to predict heart disease based on health information.To do this, we conducted exploratory data analysis and data preprocessing, including trying different resampling methods and creating data visualizations.
Kim went on to complete a summer 2023 internship.

Alexis
Alexis is an Asian woman and a CS major.Like Kim, she participated in Career Launch and worked on a team project, which involved creating "a compendium of local sustainable shopping stores and publishing them as a website with other features such as a shopping cart and calendar."She further noted that the team she worked on "was all computing majors and despite being in different grades I found it very easy to talk and communicate with them." Alexis participated in the mentoring component of Career Launch which "helped me to connect with a recently graduated [university] student and made it feel like despite whatever grade you are in, you can seek help."She also expressed feeling like she was part of a sustained community.
Although she still aspired to pursue a career in computing when she completed Career Launch, her post-survey responses to whether she feels that she belongs and feels welcomed in computing shifted from somewhat agree to neither agree or disagree.Her response to the question about feeling like an outsider also shifted from somewhat disagree to somewhat agree.In spite of positive interactions with her mentor and peers, Alexis also stated, "Though obviously not true, at times I feel 'behind' my peers, or that everyone knows something that I do not."Alexis did not complete a summer computing internship.

IMPLICATIONS AND TAKEAWAYS
Our data reveals that both Sprinternship and Career Launch can provide meaningful learning opportunities for students and positively impact their sense of belonging and career trajectories in computing.However, experiences vary by micro-internship host companies and interactions with team members.Generally, positive relationships with mentors and supervisors lead students to develop a greater sense of belonging in computing and an interest in pursuing computing careers.This finding aligns with previous research [22][23][24].Most notably, Sprinternship and Career Launch students felt that the experiences were very helpful in developing their resumes and professional skills.
Despite the positive impact that professional development experiences can have on promoting talent-development and creating a pathway from undergraduate education to career, our data also reveals that micro-internships may come with limitations beyond student control.While these programs are effective at providing students opportunities to apply computing skills and exposing students to different industries, structural factors within industry can hinder student success [4] [27].
Ultimately, Career Launch had a similar impact as Sprinternship.It was also both easier to manage at scale and to replicate on a smaller budget at a university level because Career Launch did not rely heavily on industry partnerships.Encouraging industry partners to develop Sprinternships depended on both company leadership and available staff to mentor and lead the internships.Company commitment to Sprinternship also was tied to whether the company was seeking opportunities to diversify their workforce or engage in "philanthropic" work through a micro-internship program like Sprinternship, or whether these organizations were committed to systemic change efforts to diversify their intern tech hiring methods [4] [25].

RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
We draw from the experiences shared in this paper to suggest two recommendations for individuals interested in engaging in similar work: Recommendation #1: Targeted interventions are needed to close gaps in student success in tech careers.Stakeholders from academia, industry, and nonprofit organizations need to collaborate to scale these programs across the country while also providing funding mechanisms for out of the classroom career programs (NACE & BTT Paper).National organizations should also work together to scale micro-internship programs that are available and open to all students, but especially students who have been historically marginalized by society.They should leverage their status to encourage companies to create intentional spaces for micro-internship programs.
Recommendation #2: Corporate-sponsored internships can help build a pipeline between undergraduate education and tech careers but cannot necessarily deconstruct systemic issues.When implementing micro-internship and other career-focused programs, include strategies to help undergraduate students navigate experiences in which they are exposed to oppressive corporate cultures and negative experiences with mentors, especially in companies that promote stereotypes, lack supportive role models or community, or sometimes even silence women, Black, Hispanic/Latino/a/x and/or first-generation tech professionals [25] [27].
In conclusion, strong large-scale implementations of career programs outside of the classroom are one avenue to begin closing the gap between academic classroom learning and skillbased needs from industry.Sprinternship and Career Launch show that targeted career prep programs that actively recruit undergraduate women, Black, Hispanic/Latino/a/x, and firstgeneration students can be done at national and local levels.They also are critical in helping students, especially students from historically marginalized populations, to secure their first technical internship by building a bridge between their undergraduate education and tech careers.However, variations in student experiences as well as scalability challenges with Sprinternship re-emphasize that systemic barriers in the computing field still limit the overall impact of career preparation programs.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Scale for pre-and post-survey item analysis.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Pre/post-survey changes in whether a student feels they belong in computing.

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Pre/post-survey changes in whether a student feels they are welcomed in computing.

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Pre/post-survey changes in whether a student feels they DO NOT feel like an outsider in computing.

Figure 5 .
Figure 5. Pre/post-survey changes in whether a student plans to pursue a career in computing.

Table 2 .
Survey items analyzed and their type of response.

Table 3 .
Annual survey results by program.