Donald Keough, Editor-In-Chief
Students filled the Mitchell Recreation and Athletic Center once again for the Austin E. Knowlton Center for Career Exploration career fair on Feb. 5.
The fair is designed to help students connect with employers and explore a variety of opportunities. This was the fifth career fair of its kind.
This summer, the Knowlton Center is launching a new program slated to offer students what they call impact on-campus internships. These internships are partnered with various departments on campus. In total, 13 offices have helped create 21 different internships for students for this summer.
At the fair, there were a number of departments tabling with information about the internships they’re offering.
“We’re really excited about it,” Jessica Hall, the director of industry partnerships said. “Students of all class years should be comfortable finding these opportunities. It’s a wonderful expansion of our internship program.”
These new internships are modeled after the Summer Scholars program, which grants students on-campus positions revolving around research. These internships span over 10 weeks, and participants will work 30 hours a week while earning a $5,000 stipend. Housing will also be provided, and international students will not need to get work authorization.
Melanie Murphy, the executive director for the Knowlton Center said that they hope these internships will help upscale the level of student employment, since the support to departments operations through these student internships could be beneficial to them.
“I’m hopeful that this will help us reach more offices to help provide stronger experiences,” Murphy said. “You need to be able to say, ‘I work this campus position during the school year, and here’s all the transferable skills I gained.’”
Another intention behind the program is to help provide students with alternative opportunities as they face challenges such as, as Murphy describes, an “internship supply problem,” as well as an increased demand for prior student experience when applying.
“There are not enough internships out there to meet the demand of students who want internships, so that’s one issue we’re trying to solve,” Murphy said. “The second is what a student needs to get an internship. The level for getting an internship has changed– there’s some expectation that you have experience before you get an internship.”
There also have been some changes to federal financial aid for students which influenced the Knowlton Center’s decision to push for these new opportunities.
“Students are limited on how much money they can receive as a direct stipend from the university, so we wanted to make sure everybody had an internship opportunity,” Murphy said.
She also said that she doesn’t believe that the recent funding changes were intended to negatively affect internship opportunities, and that it helped create a unique opportunity for students in a less competitive applicant pool.
Beyond the new internships, the career fair also featured its usual diverse slew of employers along with graduate school representatives, past student internship showcases and a variety of on-campus resources. There were 89 booths in total.
The career fair also catered toward students interested in the visual arts, education, social impact, wellness and government positions.
“I have a soft spot for this fair because we’re not only here to support students that are interested in going into business or technology or the traditional organizations and corporate jobs,” Hall said. “This fair is a demonstration of our commitment and support for all communities… and I love seeing the support for students in the arts and hopefully they get to see that they can build a life with their creativity.”