Interactions between industry and academia are beneficial, desirable, and often underutilized. In order to provide a symbiotic relationship between industrial partners, program faculty, and students, a mentoring mechanism could be established. The goal of the relationship would be to bridge the gap between industry and academia, allowing a collaborative flow of information between the two. Benefits of partnerships to academia could include direct interactions between professionals and students, input for curricular modifications based on industry's needs, and student experiential work arrangements. Through interactions such as field trips to companies, classroom visitations by industrial representatives, or more recently, via instant messaging (IM) communications between students and professionals, students would be able to interact with discipline-specific professionals and topical experts as they proceed through their course material. Industry could also provide advisement/input related to curriculum modifications, equipment acquisitions, and career counseling. The penultimate outcome of this type of relationship could be the arrangement of cooperative work experiences/internships. Academia's collaboration with industry for the ultimate benefit of student learning would be brought full circle as industry could benefit from better prepared graduates entering the workforce. Hopefully, as a result of such a partnership, the needs of academia would be met while the workforce desires of industry would be satisfied.
Back to Chemical Education Symposia: Mentoring
Back to The 33rd Northeast Regional Meeting (July 14-17, 2005)