A View from the Bridge: Importance of Internships
0By Felicia Proctor
We all know how important college is these days and how much it helps you in the real world. When you start college as a freshman, all you worry about is getting through four years and trying to survive. College can be a rude awakening for a lot of students if they only do it because their parents made them.
When you get through the first and best three years of your college career, all of a sudden, reality starts to slap you in the face. Your senior year is upon you, and you have no idea what you are going to do in eight months when you graduate. Even though when we graduate with a college degree, sometimes that is not good enough for some employers. If you have more experience than someone applying for the same position, all else being equal, then that could get you the job over the other applicant.
When I started college in 2011, I never thought about doing an internship or anything of that sort. At that time, I wanted to be a teacher and with the program, I would be doing student teaching, which would be my internship. After my first year, I decided that was not what I wanted to do anymore. I had no idea what I wanted. After some thought and talking with an advisor, I decided to pursue a communication degree because I loved talking and being around people.
When it came to my senior year, I found out that I had to do an internship in order to graduate. I was completely lost, and I had no idea where I was going to do one at or even how I was going to get one. In my senior capstone class last semester, Richard Wilson, from the Association of Independent Kentucky Colleges and Universities, came and talked to us. At the beginning, I didn’t think this was for me because I know nothing about politics or government. I discovered, however, that there were internships in several diferent fields. Lo and behold, I have been interning at the Education and Workforce Cabinet for the past two months and it has been the best experience of my life.
Internships are not just about getting experience in the work place but also networking with everyone you meet. The number of people that I have met in the past couple months is unbelievable. I may not remember all of them, but they might remember me. If you make a good impression on them, you could always get hired by them or even receive a good reference.
The best advice I have for any college student is to do as many internships as possible. There are days that can be boring because they might not have much for me to do, but that is when I look for jobs or try to learn more about a job. When interning, you learn as much as you want. If you do not want to learn and are just there because you have to be, then you will not get anything out of it. If you are there to learn, then you will get the experience that you need and more. Sometimes, you can get more than work experience out of it. It all depends where you work and with whom!
UPIKE wants to make sure you get the most out of your college degree. There are plenty of options for internships. If you want to go to Frankfort for a semester, I highly recommend doing the internship through AIKCU. If you are interested in doing an internship, talk to your advisor. You will not regret the experience that you will get out of learning about the real world.