Area college students gain real-life job experience through internships
Jordan Mitrik and Rachel Narasimhan, both seniors at Waynesburg University, completed internships during the summer. Jordan worked with the Civic Light Opera in Pittsburgh, and Rachel spent the summer in Panama working with monkeys.
Jordan Mitrik, a senior communications major at Waynesburg University, completed an internship with Pittsburgh CLO.
Heather Mason, left, and Alexis Simic hold babies born at Bang Rakam Hospital. The California University of Pennsylvania students studied global health care, and saw patients with dengue fever and injuries from agricultural work.
Alexis Simic, left, and Heather Mason are shown in surgical clothing while taking part in a medical internship in Thailand hospitals. The California University of Pennsylvania biology majors observed open heart surgeries and hip and knee replacements.
Rachel Narasimhan, a biology major at Waynesburg University who also is pursuing a minor in psychology, spent the summer in Panama at Alouetta Sanctuary, where she worked with capuchin and howler monkeys as part of her internship. She plans to continue to work with primates after graduation.
Heather Mason, front, and Alexis Simic spent the summer in Thailand on medical internships through Gap Medics. The pair are biology majors at California University of Pennsylvania and shadowed doctors at two Thailand hospitals. They took excursions on their time off.
From left, Alexis Simic and Heather Mason, biology majors at California University of Pennsylvania, spent their summer in Phitsanulok, Thailand. The pair had premedical internships with Gap Medics.
Heather Mason and Alexis Simic spent their summer break 8,500 miles away from the campus of California University of Pennsylvania, in Phitsanulok, Thailand.
Mason and Simic, biology majors, landed premedical internships with Gap Medics, where they shadowed doctors at two Thailand hospitals.
They saw cases of Dengue fever and bronchiolitis, observed doctors treat victims of farming accidents (common in the agricultural country), and watched open-heart surgeries and knee and hip replacements.
The internship sprinkled in travel and recreation opportunities, so Mason and Simic visited the island of Koh Pha Ngan, went bamboo rafting and zip lining.
And they rode elephants.
“It was the most rewarding trip I’ve ever taken,” said Mason, a junior and aspiring physician’s assistant. “I never thought I wanted to do surgery, but after watching several knee and hip replacements, I found out that I love orthopedics and it might be something I want to pursue.”
Mason and Simic aren’t alone: Nearly three-fourths of students enrolled in four-year colleges and universities take on at least one internship during their collegiate career.
Last year, more than 2,300 Cal U. students participated in an internship or experiential education, including clinicals and field experience.
“Internships really are a win-win,” said Tracie Beck, director of California University of Pennsylvania’s Internship Center.
There are conflicting reports, however, about the importance of some internships.
According to the 2014 report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, 65.4 percent of that year’s graduating class who had paid internships received job offers prior to graduation, compared with just 39.5 percent for those who had unpaid internships – not much higher than students who had no internship experience at all, 38.6 percent.
And the cost of some internships – Gap Medics charges a $450 registration fee, and internships start at $1,290 a week – puts them out of reach of many students.
Mason and Simic won Rutledge Internship Fund scholarships to help defray the cost, and many colleges offer similar funding.
Jeff Kotula, president of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce, said there are several benefits of internships for college students, and he encourages them to take one.
“I’ve seen more and more companies utilizing interns,” said Kotula. “I’d highly encourage any student to take an internship. It’s a two-way street: It allows you to be exposed to the workforce and get valuable work experience, and allows you to find out what you want to do after college. And it allows employers to bring someone in and test drive them, teach them their system and possibly see if they fit into the company’s culture.”
UPMC and Mylan Corp. have established strong internship programs and hire from their pool of interns.
Cal U.’s Internship Center has placed students in several departments at Mylan, including the chemistry lab and the human resources and accounting departments.
Mike Cerchiaro, education program manager for Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, said the company started its internship program in 1973 to give students real-world experience in live musical theater production.
He said the company has hired former interns, and that an internship can give students an edge.
“If you are looking at hiring someone with absolutely no knowledge of the organization and the product it is trying to sell vs. someone who has been trained and molded by your organization, the ‘trained’ person has an edge over the other,” said Cerchiaro. “But of course with any hiring, there are many factors that come in to play: experience, education, etc.”
Jordan Mitrik, a senior communication major with an emphasis in public relations at Waynesburg University, completed a public relations and marketing internship at CLO and did everything from write press releases, handle social media accounts and promote the company’s summer shows to organize an elaborate closing night cast party.
“I not only learned through my assignments how to improve my PR and marketing skills, but I also was able to grow as a young professional,” said Mitrik.
Washington & Jefferson College offers scholarships through the Magellan Project, which provides scholarship funding for students to spend the summer pursuing internships and independent projects in the United States and abroad.
Karen Oosterhaus, director of communications at W&J, said the benefits of internships are invaluable – learning whether or not students like the job they’re considering, gaining networking contacts, learning firsthand what it’s like to work in an office and interact with supervisors and co-workers, and applying what students have learned in the classroom.
W&J junior Blynn Shideler, who is completing the college’s dual-degree engineering program and is a French major, accepted a biomedical engineering research internship with a prosthetics company, Cognition and Action Group at the Universite Paris Descartes in Paris.
During his three-month internship, Shideler – the youngest intern to work with COGNAC – conducted research on several projects.
He analyzed skeletal muscular activity in the body during the gait cycle; conducted an independent study in the lab observing acceleration patterns in the feet during a normal gait cycle (a study COGNAC-G had wanted to do, but didn’t have the time or equipment to do until Shideler tracked down the equipment and designed the experiment); co-edited a COGNA-G publication on a multimillion dollar whiplash study; and visited a hospital in Paris once a week where he helped engineers working to rehabilitate people who have muscular dystrophies, such as from a stroke or Parkinson’s disease.
“My experience was so incredibly beneficial,” said Shideler, who plans to work in prosthetic engineering and design artificial limbs. “I’m interested in biomedical engineering because I want to make people’s lives better, and I learned so much while I was abroad. But it also helped me to grow as an individual.”
Rachel Narasimhan, a senior biology major at Waynesburg University, spent her summer in the jungles of Panama at Alouetta Sanctuary, a primate and wildlife rehabilitation center.
She rehabilitated white-faced capuchin monkeys and mantled howler monkeys that were victims of the pet trade and reintroduced them to the wild. She also studied howlers to compile an inventory of their behavior, and learned to interpret their facial expressions and body language, and she studied the effects of teak harvesting, a profitable business which often devastates local mammal populations.
The cost of the internship was $1,000 a month, in addition to travel and supply costs.
“It was one of the most meaningful and amazing experiences of my life,” said Narasimhan, who wants to continue to do the work she tackled in Panama. “I’m a strong student, but there are things that simply cannot be learned from a textbook.”