With the start of spring term, students will not only enjoy the warmer weather, but will also continue the search for summer internships.
The UO Career Center provides students with resources to successfully locate and obtain an internship to earn course credits that interests them.
“We are really, really fortunate to be able to manage an internship program through the career center,” said Deborah Chereck, UO Career Center director. “Some of these are for credit and some of them are for pay, but they can still earn credit regardless if it’s a learning experience and they can document that learning.” @@http://uoregon.edu/findpeople/person/deborah*chereck@@
Chereck said that during the academic year, approximately 25 students per quarter obtain myriad internships with the help of the Career Development Internship Program. This number increases to 50 and 75 students during the summer. She mentioned that the Career Center does not place students with internships, but provides them with the information and resources to obtain them on their own. @@http://career.uoregon.edu/about/programs/career-development-internship-program@@
“We actually do no placing,” Chereck said. “Students would like to come in and have us hand them something.”
The Career Development Internship Program also provides students with affordable internship opportunities. Internship credit is $135 per credit hour with zero University fees — almost a quarter of the cost for a student paying out-of-state tuition.
Helping students to obtain an internship abroad is also something the Career Center focuses on. The IE3 Global Internship program allows students to study or work in another country and earn course credit. @@http://intlsa.uoregon.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgram&Program_ID=320@@
University senior Brian Delumpa is participating in a 12-week digital arts and photography internship in Sydney, Australia. @@http://www.uoregon.edu/findpeople/person/Brian*Delumpa@@
“I’m anxious to be in a new environment, but at the same time I’m excited to further my skills and finally put them to use in a more professional manner,” he said.
Chereck said that even with the success of the Career Development Internship Program, she still faces many challenges. One of the largest is helping students find paid internships.
“We have to keep working really hard to bring the paid internships to students,” Chereck said. “It allows them to achieve two goals at once. There are very few students that can afford to do an unpaid internship in the summer. That’s the stuff that keeps me up at night and worries me.”
Chereck encouraged all students interested in the Career Development Internship Program to attend the career fair on Wednesday, April 18, from 12-5 p.m. in the EMU Ballroom. @@http://career.uoregon.edu/@@