As part of a retention strategy to help students complete their convergence education and establish some experience to help them enter the workforce, the CTC supports an internship/Co-Op program for students who are already enrolled in convergence classes at any of the three partner schools.

Internship/co-op options include a 3-credit hour class covering 320 hours of work conducted during 16 weeks or a 2-credit hour class covering 224 work hours over the 16 week period. Businesses who have convergence interns have the option of choosing whether or not to pay these students for their hours worked.

The student intern would spend an hour a week with their faculty supervisor and 16 classroom hours over the course of the internship experience. This time could be split between working with faculty and/or workshops they attend at the employer site. The classroom hours are dedicated to developing interpersonal and professional skills, including goal setting. There are different co-op criteria at each college. At Collin, for example, in order to qualify to participate, a student has to have taken a semester of classes or 9 hours in his major with at least a 2.5 GPA.

This program is being offered in conjunction with co-op and career services organizations or within each division so that organizational support services are not duplicated.