Meramec encourages every student to get an internship. Internships involve hands-on work experience in the field that student wishes to work for after graduating.
Amber Davis
– Asst. Art & Life Editor –
Jacqueline Meaders-Booth, a career and employment advisor at STLCC-Meramec, said 93 percent of employers will only hire recently graduated students with some type of hands on experience in their field.
“[Students] don’t want to be in that seven percentile. If you can go out and get that job shadowing, volunteering or internship experience –all those things are going to help [the student’s] resume. Employers want people with internships in their field,” Meaders-Booth said.
Meramec encourages every student to get an internship. Internships involve hands-on work experience in the field that student wishes to work for after graduating.
“We encourage students to try for that internship if you can find one,” Hope Steiner, Meramec counselor, said.
Each department at Meramec offers several internships for students seeking a degree in their area. Before going to the department about internships, here are some questions to ask the department: ‘How can I qualify?’ ‘How do I apply?’ ‘Is there more than one?’ ‘What do I need to do for each internship you have to offer me?’
“It’s very hard to say how many internships we have. Very often the department themselves will develop their own internships –such as communications for broadcast journalism. They will set something up with a radio station or TV station. I think if [the communication department] has a good cordial working relationship with a radio station, they want to make sure the student the department sends will follow the rules, be on time and do as good of a job as possible,” Steiner said.
Meramec gives students the opportunity to get internships by making it a requirement for some of the classes offered at Meramec during the semester.
“In the catalog –for example mass communications– says workplace learning one in the media and wants you to have students to give them the opportunity to apply theory learned in the classroom. Learn new skills and possibilities while being supervised by professionals on the field and of course the faculty members. In the catalog it shows the hours required for the hands on experience,” Steiner said, “Another example in the STLCC Catalog shows Human Services requires a one and two workplace. It’s not an internship per se but it still amounts to a hands-on to really work in the field opportunity which I think puts any student that can do that ahead of the game.”
An internship in the field the student wishes to enter into is a productive way to understand the inside ropes and technique it takes to make it for the job. Another benefit an internship offers is if the student is unsure of what they would like to do for their life. This allows them to have hands-on-work experience to see if that job is best suited for them.
Another way to seek an internship is to go to the Internship Fair hosted by career and employment services for the fall semester.
“We do talk to students about internships that go to our orientation, we try to instill them the importance of internships. We started our first internship fair last semester. I think it was a great opportunity for students since we had 25 employers that offered internships,” Meaders-Booth said.
Keep in mind, not all internships pay. Several internships are unpaid, but if the student is seeking a job after he or she graduates, he or she needs to look at the benefits.
“Not all internships are paid but some are. But it’s one of those things where it’s nice to know somebody. In this day and age any time, I think, a student can get an internship. It kind of gives them a leg up on maybe other students who couldn’t get an internship for whatever reason,” Steiner said.
