Extravaganza: Christine Love Sterk- Recruiting Diverse Interns

Description

Abstract:
In recent years, APA has placed more emphasis on having internship and postdoctoral
programs demonstrate their systematic, concrete, and multi-year efforts to recruit
diverse interns. However, programs historically have not had to put much thought into
advertising their programs and may have no idea where to start. It is important for
programs to consider and take steps to manage their impact on applicants and set
themselves apart in order to attract diverse interns. In this session, attendees will be
reminded why diversity-focused recruitment efforts are important, and APA standards
regarding diversity recruitment will be reviewed. Participants will learn about internship
characteristics that are attractive to potential interns from underrepresented
backgrounds and learn strategies for evaluating current and future recruitment efforts.
Recruitment strategies from psychology doctoral programs and the human resources
literature will be explored. Information regarding where to find diverse applicants, what
information to convey in marketing materials, and effective methods for disseminating
this information will be applied to psychology internship recruitment.

Learning Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. Articulate the value of diversity within one’s internship program.
2. Describe APA’s standards regarding the recruitment of diverse interns.
3. Describe characteristics of their own internship site that may be attractive to diverse
applicants for the purpose of emphasizing these in their recruitment materials.
4. Evaluate the effectiveness of previous recruitment efforts and identify strengths and
areas for improvement.
5. Design a comprehensive marketing plan with a focus on recruiting applicants from
diverse backgrounds.