A Two Year National Survey of Turf Internship Program Among Turf Students. (4019)
Authors:
H. Liu* - Clemson University T. Whitwell - Clemson University D.C. Garrett - Clemson University
Abstract:
As a part of turf education curricula, internship has been an important portion for the curent turf students, the future turf managers. Due the nature of the green
industry, students can take the advantages during the summer months to complete a three-hour credit internship within a three month period time with a weekly input of 40 to 80 hours. Many turfgrass programs for universities (more than 68% among the surveyed institutions: 31 in 2003 and 34 in 2004) have internship as a required course in their two or four year turf programs. How do our turf students respond to internship? This two year survey with the assistance of Golf Course
Superintendents Association (GCSAA) of America indicate that all turf students are favorable in taking an internship as a course and they normally obtain intern
positions through golf course superintendents and the faculty at the universities or colleges. More than 70% of the surveyed students agreed that an internship would help their turf course grades. Almost 100% surveyed students agreed that the internship would help them for their jobs after their graduation. Chemical
application and crew management were listed as the two top areas that most interns learned during their internship in the technical aspect and people skill aspect. This survey results indicate that internship is an important part of college turf curricula and it has the direct impact for the future employment of turf graduates.
Speaker Information: Haibo Liu, Clemson University, 178 P & A Building Dept. of Horticulture Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634; Phone: 864-656-6367; E-mail:
Session Information: Wednesday, November 3, 2004, 7:55 AM-11:00 AM Presentation Start: 10:15 AM
Keywords: Turfgrass internship; turfgrass student; turfgrass education; turfrass curriculum