Internships: don’t count them out
A great boost for professional qualifications

-- Nancy Yang

“Internship? Where’s the time?” groan the many students at Metropolitan, busy with a job, family, and other commitments that take precious time out of their days. Internships are another time commitment that many students don’t want to hassle themselves with. Yet, internships can be surprisingly flexible for student’s busy schedules and a great item to have on a résumé.

An internship is a structured field experience in which a student acquires and applies knowledge and skills while working in a responsible role within a community, business or government setting. Internships can fulfill general education requirements and possibly elective credits. Metropolitan guidelines specify that the student must intern a minimum of 40 hours for each semester credit earned. Each college and some departments within the university also have their own guidelines. Metropolitan’s Center for Community-Based Learning holds an internship information session monthly in order to help students.

A three-credit internship would require 120 hours a student would to log in, but it’s not as bad as one thinks. Most internships are flexible and allow the student to complete the internship in as much time as they need. Consider Kate Devlin, interning for the Exploring Program, which is part of the Indianhead Council of the Boy Scouts of America. “I started last summer, it’s been 10 months now. I could work completely from home. I would email my ‘boss’ once a week and let her know what I was doing and had accomplished. I would also email her any materials I had written and let her know what I was planning to do next week. We communicated mostly by email, sometimes by phone.”

Internships look great on résumés, especially for students entering a new career. Students also benefit by learning how the work would be like for them in their career. This would help them really decide if they want to pursue that career or not. Kate Devlin states, “Interning has allowed me to use my writing skills while benefiting the Explorer program. I have written articles for community newspapers and high school newspapers. I also created an ad and flyer for them and updated a training manual.” This kind of experience is beneficial to students considering a career as a writer in the competitive market of newspapers and magazines.

If nothing else, regard what Patty Gavnik, editor of The Metropolitan, has to say: “Most graduates I talk to list not taking an internship as their biggest regret.” Don’t add any more regrets to your life.

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