Skylab Innovation Center Seeks Students

The Aerospace Center for Excellence (ACE) has announced its new Skylab Innovation Center Internship Programs, a scaffolded initiative that offers future aerospace and aviation professionals hands-on training and on-the-job experience at ACE's laboratories.

A world-famous campus is a great place for interns to experience the breadth of aerospace aviation, with opportunities to touch on a variety of pathways through a STEM career. ACE describes the program as a “mission to impact a variety of people and barriers to employment.” 

ACE is careful to distinguish their methods from the average working internship. Generally used as gofers, messengers, copy-machine attendants, or janitors, the old-fashioned methods have come to be associated with less academic rigor than originally intended. Forgoing the problems that come with those methods, ACE touts a “top-down mentorship” model, which they say will not only provide a more edifying experience, but create a student-to-employee pipeline after their completion of study. 

When involved in the top-down model, students are 60% more likely to choose a career in the field, and over 50% more likely to continue working for their mentors. ACE advertises a student experience that will provide interns a large academic space to grow, with periods of school and service balancing their time equally. Students participating as interns and junior interns will complete their in-service hours for the organization in equal proportion to their tutoring and in-school space. ACE believes their mission to “engage, educate, and accelerate the next generation of aerospace professionals’ will be well served through hands-on learning, and classroom coursework.

Participating schools and Universities preferred for the program are Polk State College, Florida Polytechnic University, Central Florida Aerospace Academy High School (for junior interns), Travis Technical College, University of South Florida, and Southeastern University. Interested parties may contact the Dean of Academic Affairs and Museum Sciences at ACE, Robin Kirk. 

FMI: www.aceedu.org