Chapter Establishes Internship Program

In March, the chapter launched a new internship program aligned with the region's defense and aerospace sectors to support work force development. The chapter partnered with the Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education (SOCHE) for the initiative. The program aims to fulfill defense and aerospace work force development capabilities and reduce university and college recruiting costs for participating corporate partners. Several contractor organizations in the Dayton community have identified challenges in recruiting and retaining high-caliber interns to fulfill vacant positions within their organizations. To address this problem, the chapter is partnering with SOCHE to launch an internship program. In this partnership, SOCHE will support the recruitment, employment and contracting aspects of aligning interns to specific opportunities through the chapter Internship Program. The chapter will serve as the single point of contact for SOCHE to the defense and aerospace community when marketing and coordinating the internship opportunities. Within the chapter organization, it is recommended that the director of education position serve as the point of contact for SOCHE as well as the individual AFCEA corporate members who wish to take advantage of the AFCEA internship program. It is also envisioned that the director of education will support marketing and recruiting organizations to use the AFCEA internship program. SOCHE will recruit candidates primarily from Southwestern Ohio but also nationally for students interested in relocating or who have ties to the Miami Valley region. SOCHE has proven expertise in recruiting specialized skill areas in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) domains. They currently support the Air Force Institute of Technology, the Air Force Research Laboratory and other commercial areas in recruiting of interns. SOCHE will employ all interns and contract the resources to the corporate partner. The chapter's Internship Program will also leverage other local activities intended to market and recruit young professionals to the Dayton region including Up Dayton, Generation Dayton and the Young AFCEANs. The chapter's point of contact for the program is Aaron Miller, chapter vice president of operations, who can be reached at aaron.miller@wright.edu.