I wanted to ask how a summer intern would go about proposing new projects towards a company.
As I am wrapping up the final weeks of my summer internship developing additional functions to the company's in-house statistical analysis GUI for R. I find myself wondering how I would go about pitching the idea of how the current project can be improved in the future.
I understand that as a summer intern, my gravitas is well... limited...(perhaps non-existent is a better word).
I have read the question and answers from a similar question and determined that I can ask. But the decision is whether or not I should and how.
From an office-politics perspective, this action would serve as self-aggrandizing (or self-serving?) as it would mean more work for me (or continued work for me beyond the summer internship). I understand that from a company perspective, with limited budgets and resources, this would not be within the original scope of my employment.
From the project's perspective however, metaphorically this would be akin to upgrading from Microsoft Office 2000 to MS office 2013 (more functions, easier to use, looks better). There will be an initial cost, but the subsequent increases in productivity and ease-of-use would be, yet difficult to measure, counterweights to the cons.
Coming from the perspective of a summer intern, how can I go about proposing a new project?