Paul WilliamsCabrini offers students the opportunity to integrate their classroom education while gaining knowledge through a work experience in a field related to their major-an internship.
The internship program known as Cooperative Education is offered to all majors, and is available throughout the fall, spring and summer months. In order to apply for an internship, the student must meet certain requirements. The student must have a 2.0 or higher grade point average, 45 credits and general electives filled before seeking a co-op placement.
Once the student becomes eligible to enroll in the program the student must complete an application form and a resume. “When the student has these two pieces of approval-the adviser’s signature and resume-they can start looking at the co-op jobs, which are on the recruiting data base on the Cabrini career service website,” Kristie Conway Beucler, assistant director of cooperative education and career services, said.
Whether the student finds a job through the co-op job services or petitions a job, which is a job that the student has found on their own, it must meet college level credits and the student must have the qualifications in order to perform the job duties. “Once the student has said yes to taking the job, they are committed for the semester,” Beucler said. Students work from two to six credits per semester. “We try to encourage students to have two full days at least if not three full days to go to work. They get a better sense of what goes on in the business when they are there for a full day,” Beucler said.
Junior, Jennelle Battle said, “Working full time over the summer helped me see what I would be doing being that I am a marketing major.” She got her internship through the co-op services at Paula Hian Creations. Desperately wanting to work with clothes the opportunity fell into her lap. Another student recently quit and the fashion designer was looking for a replacement. “I really enjoyed the first day because all I did was work with clothes,” Battle said. From paper work to press releases to organizing fabrics to arranging the showroom, Battle learned what it takes to be a successful businesswoman. “The advertising and organizing together helped me out a lot because I did not know it took so much paper work and money to get things done right. Making sure that things were printed out and mailed correctly, staying within the budget and not overdoing something were just a few things that were worthwhile to learn,” Battle said.
With the good comes the bad. Sometimes it is the little nonsense things that make a big difference. In Battle’s case, looking up zip codes in the phone book may not have been such an exciting job, but what is important is that she now knows the names of all the different areas. Even with the meaningless job tasks involved, Battle is looking forward to pursuing such a career.
Taylor Duffy, a junior, applied for his internship as a petition rather than through the co-op program. He knew someone that worked for A&1 Basketball, a basketball shoe and apparel company, and thought that it would be a good place to start. “It was great and more than I expected. Working in an internship has given me a good sense of what I want to do later on in life and really showed me what working in the communications field as well as what goes into working a nine to five job entails,” Duffy said. Working in the public relations department he was provided the freedom to deal with the media, travel to different cities and meet a few NBA players. From press releases to follow-up calls to sending complimentary gifts to handling the media, Duffy was able to get his foot in the door.
Being that the company Duffy interned for was fairly young, he felt that it was not structured well. He felt like he was getting pulled in a million different directions-in and outside of his department. Even though this was a slightly negative aspect of the internship it is not holding Duffy back, and he hopes to land a job there after college.
While some jobs may make you want to run out of the office screaming, others do have benefits. “The benefits of an intern experience is getting to see what it is really like in the work place,” Beucler said. For those that hated it or had a terrible time learned that it was not what they wanted to do. “This is good in my opinion because the student found out now while in college that they did not want to do that for a real job and they can look elsewhere and try and find something else they like before they graduate,” Beucler said. Another really big benefit is that most of the internships are paid. Students also earn college credit and make contacts in that profession.
