Work in Progress -A Study of How Real-World Engineering Experience can Affect Women's Academic Career

Growing evidence has suggested that industry-sponsored project experience, where the student is paid, can provide students with a real-world perspective that enhances the student's academic experience. This experience is particularly valuable for female students because women may have less real-world exposure to applications in their chosen career path compared to their male counterparts. Sometimes internship experiences can be a negative experience for female students. Our working hypothesis is that internship experiences have the potential to affect female students more than male students, both positively and negatively The focus of this paper is to determine if there are significant gender differences resulting from students' internship experience on academic performance and attitudes about their future career choice.