5 Tips for a Successful Summer Internship
OK. Summer is here. Some of you will just chill by a pool somewhere. But many more of you are also starting your summer internships.
Summer internships are beneficial to your academic and professional career. For some students, they can be truly life-changing. Internships are an opportunity to learn from professionals, try career options, and meet new mentors. Whether you have already secured a great internship or whether you’re still looking for one, take a moment and think about how to become a successful intern so that you can get the most of out of your experience. After all, landing an internship is just a beginning, and it is up to you to make it a productive experience. Here are some tips:
1.     Be humble: As talented as you may be, one thing to remember is that you are there to learn. So be open to feedback and guidance from your supervisor and colleagues, because “true humility is staying teachable, regardless of how much you already know”.
2.     Act As If: While I say humility is important, this notion shouldn’t be mistaken as permission for you to be passive or uninvolved. Rather, it’s crucial that you remember that you’re part of the organization, even if it is only temporary. Act as if you are an employee. That means to be mindful of punctuality, your attire, and other common office courtesy and rules. Get involved in life as a member of the organization.
3.     Engage: Your supervisor will be more willing to offer you challenging and fulfilling tasks if they believe that you genuinely care about the work that you’re doing. Take notes, ask questions, and share your ideas so that they know that you’re interested. Establish a good relationship with your supervisor, and meet with them regularly so that you can keep track of how you are performing, and make sure that both of your expectations are being met. Show enthusiasm and interest in the work. No one will want to teach you if you appear uninterested.
4.     Communicate, and communicate well: Communication skills are a highly valued asset that many employers look for in job candidates, and this applies to interns as well. Think about how you’re communicating with your supervisor and colleagues, both verbal and written, and explore ways to improve it. It is also important that you ask questions if you are unsure about any aspects of your work. Do not assume anything, especially if your action could affect other people's work. It is better to be the annoying intern who asks a lot of questions than the intern from hell who broke a major piece of equipment. Know how, when, and to whom to ask questions and you will be fine.
5.     Keep in touch. Before your internship is over, make sure that you leave all of your work in order and provide a summary of all work products. After you finish your internship, make sure to let your mentors know where they can reach you if they have any questions about your work. Send a note of appreciation. Don’t just disappear after your internship is complete! Make an effort to stay in touch with your supervisor and colleagues, by sending them updates or checking in to say hello. Your supervisor is a very valuable contact to maintain. You might want to ask them for advice or for a letter of recommendation later on. Contacting your internship mentor only when you need something from them will not be well received.
Internships can be very rewarding, productive and can have a big impact on your life and career. Here is a great opportunity for you to shine.
This is the first in a series of blog posts on internships and mentors. To download the Free Checklist for Meeting with an Internship Mentor, click HERE.

Diversity in the workplace is starting to be more than a buzzword. Many companies are making diversity one of their top priorities. Amazon, the biggest retailer in the world, recently announced that it will nominate women and minorities to its board of directors.(1) Amazon said in a statement that:
    "...diversity will benefit companies by providing greater access to talent, harnessing existing talent more effectively, and improving decision making by reducing groupthink and similar psychological biases."

The issue of "groupthink", defined as "the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility" is more common in non-diverse workplaces, to their detriment.(2) 

If you are a hiring officer, chairman, or leader at your workplace, consider how you can get ahead of your competition by hiring people of diverse backgrounds.  Here are some ideas to help you improve diversity in your workplace.

Stop with the Excuses Already! Stop saying that you can't find good minority candidates to hire.  That is no longer a good excuse.  Although there are still small numbers of us in some sectors, particularly in academic STEM fields, there are at least some minority if you know where to look.  For example, I direct a research program for minority graduate students.  Every year, I receive 400-600 applications for 10 spots.  There are many great candidates in that pool of applications.  Similarly, if you advertise broadly you will be able to attract a diverse group of candidates.
 
Learn about Diversity: Incredibly, it is 2018 and many leaders don't know what we mean when we talk about diversity and even worst, they don't know how diversity may benefit their organizations. An increasing number of business leaders and academics are becoming aware of the evidence that shows that diversity in their teams can improve their revenue, but this knowledge is not yet widespread in many organizations.(1) 

Train Staff: Researchers at Montana State University conducted a randomized controlled trial to test whether they could improve hiring of women faculty in science and technology positions. In the study, search committee chairs in the intervention group received training on gender bias and work-life integration. The researchers found that the search committees that received this training were much more likely to hire women for faculty positions as compared to the search committees that did not receive this training.(3)

Outreach: Advertise positions available in your institution broadly, particularly through organizations for minority professionals. Many professional associations and societies have chapters for underrepresented minorities in their profession and they can help you advertise through those channels.

Diversify and Empower your Committees: It is particularly important that search committees for positions available are diverse and have the mandate to consider qualified candidates from diverse backgrounds. This is important for at least two reasons. First, a search committee that is racially and gender diverse will distribute announcements for positions available through their networks which are more likely to be diverse as well. Second, candidates who are underrepresented in the fields may find it encouraging to see that the recruiting team is diverse. No one wants to be the only underrepresented minority in a team, so minority candidates may be more likely to accept a position in a team that has more diversity.

Create and Implement a Diversity Policy: Make sure that when you advertise positions available, that you include an equal opportunity statement. And mean it! We have all seen the now ubiquitous: "Equal opportunity employer". But companies that value diversity are being more explicit advertising their employment policies. For example, Google includes this statement:
   “At Google, we don’t just accept difference — we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our products, and our community. Google is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer.”
Boston University gives examples of more proactive language for improving recruitment of underrepresented minority faculty, such as:
     "BU is committed to building a culturally diverse faculty and strongly encourages applications from female and minority candidates. Women, minorities, individuals with disabilities and veterans are encouraged to apply. BU is dedicated to the goal of building a culturally diverse and pluralistic faculty committed to teaching and working in a multicultural environment and strongly encourages applications from minorities and women. Candidates should describe how multicultural issues have been or will be brought into courses. Candidates should describe previous activities mentoring minorities, women, or members of other underrepresented groups."

Lead by Example: Create a culture of diversity by showing that you GET IT. As a leader, you set the tone for your organization. Show that you support a corporate community of inclusion. You can do this by supporting, promoting and encouraging diversity. Start by looking around your organization and ask yourself if it reflects the population outside company's door.

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1. Reuters. Amazon adopts new policy to promote board diversity. New York Times, May 14, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2018/05/14/business/14reuters-amazon-diversity.html
2. Johansson, A. Why Workplace Diversity Diminishes Groupthink And How Millennials Are Helping.  Forbes, July 20, 2017.  https://www.forbes.com/sites/annajohansson/2017/07/20/how-workplace-diversity-diminishes-groupthink-and-how-millennials-are-helping/#36a327c4b741
3. Jessi L. Smith, Ian M. Handley, Alexander V. Zale, Sara Rushing, Martha A. Potvin; Now Hiring! Empirically Testing a Three-Step Intervention to Increase Faculty Gender Diversity in STEM, BioScience, Volume 65, Issue 11, 1 November 2015, 1084–1087, https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biv138

I care about diversity in academia. Makes sense since I am a senior faculty, I am Latina, and I am a tenured professor at a large medical center. Is it self-serving that I want to see more women and underrepresented minorities in senior faculty positions like mine?

Yes, maybe it is self-serving. But perhaps not for the reasons that you might think.
True, we underrepresented minorities and women want equal opportunity and fairness. And of course, it would be nice if discrimination, racism, and unconscious bias didn't exist. But I also see the need to increase diversity in academia as a missed opportunity. Diversity in the workplace is turning out to be a secret sauce for success in organizations. And I do want my organization to be successful.

Evidence-based research in the business sector shows that diversity can improve the bottom line. A 2009 study showed that "racial diversity is associated with increased sales revenue, more customers, greater market share, and greater relative profits.(1) More recently, a study conducted by McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm, found that companies that were ethnically diverse were 35% more likely to perform better than the national median for their industry. They also found that companies that were gender-diverse were 15% more likely to be making more money than the median.(2)
In spite of this and other evidence, many leaders are resistant to increasing diversity in their teams. According to a paper by Ellison and Mullin, this resistance comes from the fact that people enjoy being with other like-minded people.(3) It is human nature.
In their paper, Ellison and Mullin wrote that:

     --“The more homogeneous offices have higher levels of social capital" but ..."higher levels of social capital are not important enough to cause those offices to perform better. The employees might be happier, they might be more comfortable, and these might be cooperative places, but they seem to perform less well.”--

I understand this to mean that resistance to diversity may come from a level of comfort that individuals in a homogeneous group have from being with each other. Diversity challenges that level of comfort and "happiness", even when it can measurably improve productivity and profits. This is fascinating and sad at the same time. So you are telling me that leaders in homogeneous teams like to be with each other so much that they will prefer working with people who look and think like them, even if diversifying would make their organization more successful? Really? Wow!

I want my organization to be more diverse, not just because I would enjoy my work more if I could be with others who are like me, but also because I want us to be more successful. I want us to have the faculty and staff to respond to more diverse research opportunities and to be able to reach out to many different populations.
If diversity is good for business, is it good for academia?

I don't see why it wouldn't be.

So, yes. I'd like to see more diversity in the research workplace. Yes. It would make me happier to see more minority women faculty, but I would also hope that by bringing different perspectives, abilities, and resources, underrepresented minorities can make our academic institution more successful.

So I ask, please don't do us a favor. Diversifying your workplace is not a charity case. Diversity is good for you, even if at first it might be a little uncomfortable.
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1. Cedric Herring. Does diversity pay?: Race, gender, and the business case for diversity. American Sociological Review 74: 208-224, 2009, https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240907400203
2. Hunt V, Layton D, Prince S. Why diversity matters. January 2015. www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/why-diversity-matters
3. Ellison SF, Mullin WP. Diversity, Social Goods Provision, and Performance in the Firm. J Economics & Management Strategy. 23: 465-481, 2014, https://doi.org/10.1111/jems.12051