Student internships become a necessity
By Adrian Kendrick
Feature Editor
Students at the University of Indianapolis are taking advantage of internships because the experience makes obtaining a job a little easier.
“Students know now that they need internships,” said Libby Davis, assistant director of internships for Career Services. “Now internships are no longer optional.”
According to General Manager of WICR-FM/HD Radio/UIndy TV and Instructor of Communication Scott Uecker, in an internship, a student goes into an organization to learn skills and perform the essential functions of the company.
“It is not a job,” Uecker said. “You’re there to do what would be expected of you at a job, but there is a learning component. It mirrors a job, but it is educational in nature.”
Internships, according to Davis, are a learning experience with defined goals.
“When a student comes in and says, ‘I want to gain experience [from an internship],’ that’s good. But they need to take that to a higher level,” Davis said. “What do they want to get out of it?”
According to Davis, when students walk nto Career Services for the first time, they are given an internship starter packet, which contains some basic information about the Career Services internship program. Next, the student is asked to sign up for a one-time, one-hour orientation session. The session is offered twice a week: Wednesdays from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. and Thursdays from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. If those times do not work for the student, he or she may arrange another time.
“Career Services also offers practice interviews, and we talk to the student about who is an applicable candidate for an internship,” Davis said. “We also [inform] the students on how to be a convincing interviewee, how to dress and other concerns they may have.”
Senior Joshua Reichart said that he has benefited from Career Services.
“They were very helpful,” Reichart said. “Every staff member assisted me and was able to answer my questions.”
Reichart, a marketing major, has participated in more than one internship. Over the summer he interned with Goodwill Industries, and he currently is participating in an internship with the 500 Festival.
According to Reichart, he decided to do multiple internships for the experience.
“I wanted to learn about the different aspects of marketing,” he said. “It was more for the exposure.”
According to Uecker, who is the internship director for the communication department, a student should work through the department or faculty advisor guidelines and the advisor because he or she has the previous knowledge and experience of placing interns at organizations.
“In the communication field, I know where the good ones are and [where] the ‘Oh you may not want to go there ones [are],’” Uecker said.
According to senior Daniel Scott, Uecker’s assistance with his internship search was great.
“He pushed me in the right direction,” Scott said.
Scott interned over the summer as a photographer in the news department at Channel 6 News. Now he is interning at Fusework Studios, a production company.
“There is only so much [professors] can teach you,” Scott said. “The internships give you that real-world experience that you can’t find in school.”
According to Davis, there is a lot less at risk for an intern exploring the field.
“After interning with Chanel 6, I knew that I did not want to work in the news department. But I knew I wanted to be in the broadcasting field. They [the internship] solidified that decision,” Scott said.
According to Uecker, students can discover that they do not want to be in a specific field because of an internship.
“It is better to find that out your junior year in college than to wait until you have graduated,” he said.
Davis did not have the opportunity to experience an internship.
“I wish I had an internship,” she said. “I wish I had known the importance of having one.”
Uecker interned with Network Indiana at Wabash Valley Broadcasting and encourages internships because his experience was rewarding. He became Wabash’s news director a year later.
“I got in the building, they liked what I could do, I got a part-time job out of it and worked my way up into a full-time job,” Uecker said.
According to Davis, having an internship does not guarantee a student a job.
“You are definitely looked upon more favorably if you have an internship, as opposed to a candidate who did not have one, ” she said.
On a scale of one to ten, Uecker gave the importance of an internship an 11.
“I can’t state enough how strongly I feel that internships for students should be one of the highlights of their academic careers,” Uecker said. “I think students are doing a disservice to themselves if they do not consider all the possibilities out there.”
According to Davis, statistics suggest 75 to 80 percent of all internships lead to permanent jobs.
“I think it would be stupid for a student not to do [an internship],” Scott said, “because of the experience you can gain from it.”
