RH2 Engineering Makes Summer Waves!
This is a particularly special and important program we are highlighting today. This summer, RH2 Engineering will be rolling out its new Wavemaker Internship Program across its offices. It’s been wonderful to learn that some of the ideas and suggestions we write about in Intern Management have resonated and are being incorporated in the expansion of their program, and we're excited to share exactly how RH2 Engineering is doing so!
Agile Rainmakers recently caught up with Holly Loutsis, the Human Resources Business Manager, at RH2 Engineering. Holly attended an internship-focused seminar we led for the American Council of Engineering Companies Washington. We focused on how to level up internship programs for the benefit of both the intern and the host company alike.
Holly and RH2 Engineering have done an exemplary job in the depth and breadth they have afforded this next iteration of their internship program. At RH2 Engineering, internships have been a summer routine for 25 years, operating as one-off placements, offering internships to a couple students at one or two of their eight offices. This program has afforded students an entry point to the field, and for many, full-time offers after graduation. And for RH2, the program has introduced excellent candidates, allowed for an additional summer workforce, and functioned as an extended, mutually selecting interview.
Holly has spent the last year spearheading the design and rollout of their new program: the Wavemaker Internship Program. By the way, this lovely name “Wavemaker” she came up with because the interns will be making waves across engineering disciplines, including water projects. Building off previous years intern managers’ feedback and principles from Intern Management, Holly explored, “How can we enhance and evolve the program? It’s going well, but how do we make it even better.”
It is a position that managers and companies find themselves in more often than you might think: sometimes the hurdle is not whether to take on interns or not, but how to actually transform a program that works into a program that excels.
Holly was kind enough to share the messages from Intern Management that resonated most with her:
Bringing together interns both within and across the offices with unified summer events and hosting routine socials and lunches at each office.
Half days or early finishes on Friday.
Giving interns more than one task at a time to allow room for their exploration and empowerment, as well as more effective project progress.
Providing support resources at the company beyond just an intern’s mentor.
Creating connection points through the spring between students and their mentors before the summer program begins.
Regularly scheduled 1-on-1 meetings throughout the internship.
Each one of these are things we would actively encourage any company to evaluate in upgrading their internship program.
What was most rewarding to hear in Holly’s approach is her desire to make the program special — to make the interns feel that they are integrated into the company and its culture, that they enjoy the experience from start to finish, and that they feel part of a well-considered program at a company that cares about them and their future careers. Truly great internships are not seasonal workforces, they are programs that create a year-on-year legacy and connection between students and companies.
We cannot wait to follow how the program develops over the course of the summer, and we are most excited for the experience each incoming intern is about to have.
We encourage each manager out there to take on internship management with the same dedication and excitement that Holly has!
Thank you so much, Holly, for bringing dignity to the internship discourse!
- A.B.
Here's to you and your awesome future.
Until then, keep your feet on the board and keep riding your wave!
Robert J. Khoury
CEO Agile Rainmakers