Page 8 Thursday, December 13, 1984 The Capitol Times Student desire a must By Rachel Vance Cathy Madigan is one of the lucky ones. She found a facul ty membet who believed strong ly enough in student internships to announce one to his classes. she got caught in the c:ros-fire of intra-division ,d'OU, [IIC When I discussed it with the basioess ddrnmistration ad „ors. they suggested 1 attend ;bait camnas tot my educa tioli.— :ilk said. "'‘,l husband and ;, , ,o children weren't p!eas- Indu, omi,'„nted the sugaestion.'” VubliC IC` tli2l' 1:( 811.11 he rio , r,ur to 4,!11 :C 'I,IIIIC 1 .1% , 1c(i 0.1 Ilk)! ro:u ion i ~''Jii.':i! Il 1~~ kIJ 1 as hen informed I hat it should be processed through Career Planning, so , he took the application to them. Career Planning, however, had no information on the pro aram, so they sent it back to Public Affairs. It was eventually processed and sent to the appropriate per sons in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. They reviewed her application and awarded Cathy the prstigious fellowship. Cathy followed the standard procedure, but it almost did not work for her. Because of her persistance, however, she won the fellowship which earn her nine credits as well as giving her an opportunity to apply classroom theory to a real-life situation. According to promotional literature, Capitol Campus en courages internships, but, in reality, only four of the five divisions offer them to students. The divisions which offer internships include humanities, public affairs, business administration and behavioral science and education. While these strongly struc tured internships are good for the students in those programs, the non-required internships have one thing in common -- the rely on the student to in itiate them. The Humanities division focuses on finding an internship to fit the learning needs and career choices of the individual student. According to Eton Churchill, coordinator of the Multi-Media option in the Humanities division, once a student determines career goals and makes his or her desires known, a search is initiated to match the internship with the student. "Students have a respon sibility to work closely with theis advisors," Churchill said. "They are obligated to let their advisors know what they want.'' Myra Fink, a humanities stu dent, tried to do just that. She requested an internship as advertising coordinator for the Capitol Times, feeling that the experience would assist her career goal of public relations. But, although she could assume the position, she would only be gin cn course credit if she were . Business adtninistration Si Udent. 1 OC'i Ili L all air intern iiso initiated h% aceordini2. to Lloyd 17 oodruft, associate professor of public administration, but these students are referred to Career Planning to apply for The Capitol Semester program organized by Peggy O'Hara, coordinator of Carer Planning. 1 ,ti "We don't have a concen trated program to find intern ships for these students," said Woodruff. "We offer guidance but don't have any guaranteed slots." The Capitol Semester pro gram is a new project that at tempts to centralize all state government internship applica tions. The Career Planning of fice serves as the campus coor dinators at Capitol. They pro vide the applications, process them and forward them to the state for consideration. Accor ding to O'Hara, the state reviews the applications for potential internships and con tacts the students for interviews in various state agencies. "The benefit of this type of program is that it crosses all majors," O'Hara said. But, she added, the problem is getting the necessary information to the students. "We send information on these internships to the divi sions and faculty, then we post the announcements on bulletin boards. I don't know exactly how the faculty announces them to the students," O'Hara said. "We get students apply ing for these internships who haven't checked with their ad visors to see if they can get credit for them." "The internship program provides an opportunity for students to build or strengthen their resumes," O'Hara said, "and students who take advan tage of them are usually the ones called in for interviews and usually get the jobs. The concept of the passive, student-initiated internship is exactly what the National Society of Internships and Ex periental Education (NSIEE) is trying to change. The 900-member organization wants colleges and universities to strengthen and expand pro grams so that an internship is available to every student. The problem with relying on students to initiate the intern ship is that the student ,may have an advisor who doesn't feel strongly about the benefits, and some students don't even find out about the program Un lit it is too late, offered Jim Case, president of . NSIEE. — Many students who are not doing well in a cognitive CIaVSIOO/11 situation would ac tually experience better learning in an alternative program. The trident-initiated program often doesn't reach the person it would benefit most. Kentleth P. Nloi timer, ex ecutive assistant to the presi dent of the Pennsylvania State Univertlity, recently chaired The Study Group on Conditions of Excellence in American Higher Education, and some of the fin dings support NSIEE's claims. Published in "The Chronicle of Higher Education," the study warns that "the college curriculum has become ex cessively vocational in its orien tation, and the bachelor degree has lost its potential to foster the shared vallues and knowledge that bind us together as a society." The study urger more em phasis on building personal values such as self-confidence, persistencedd, social respon sibility, leadership, empathy and understanding of cultural and intellectual differences. To this end, the study recom mends that faculty "encourage internships and other forms of carefully monitored experiental . . . or an IBM PC, IBM XT, Compaq, printer, color monitor, whatever your microcomputer needs. Rent what you need at low rates fora day, a week, or a month and sham the cost with your roommate, or better yet your parents. MARRISBURG R ICA RE.FrrAL 766-4965 5252 E. TIM Rad • Moduenkabws PA ward • VISA in internships learning." To the students, the study says "make sure that you take at least one independent study course and one internship during your college career, and that these experiences involve research and the opportunity to apply theory to problems in the world beyond the campus. In sist that your institution pro vide these opportunities.'" One of the big problems with internships is lack of centraliz ed information for stude . ms and lack of administrative support for faculty. according to An nette Wofford, (Alice manager for NSIEE. "Internships take a lot of time, effort and money to set up properly. The burden of responsibility usually falls on the faculty, who have many other responsibilities to meet. If they aren't given support in these efforts, the programs • Scoop erman ice cream parlor 185 N. Second St. Highspire, PA 17034 INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS ASSOCIATION PD. EaEn - Ta TEAM TRIVIA PURsurr caMprriTiot4 1965 FOUR L AGUES : DORM MEADE HEIONTE FACULTY/STAFF COMMUTERS I.A.A. SLIM INAT I (MIS IN EACH LEAGUE sE4IN HON•JAN. 2€ THRU F. FE13.1 FINALS COMPETITION OF WINNER IN EACH LEACILIE BE AIMS 1 MON. FEB. 4 THREE MEMBERS PER TEAM ENTREE FEE : 6.00 /TEAM PRISES WILL EM AWARDED TO WINNERS omm. r.gok *loam - -- .••• CIRCLE LEAGUE MO. Tekm NA-me : 7rMdt Gk INI NI 'S NaitilC : ADDRESS : •. To ENTER , Fl LL /Move "JD RETUR N 70 Niv -104. gursTioNs 9 CA-LL GRAN bESA.I AT 944- - 2182 usually don't develop The Behavioral Science and Education division at Capitol has centralized its required in ternships through the efforts of one faculty member. "I think you'll find a passive attitude unless one person does take the responsibility, -- said Division Head Stanley Miller. "If nobody is responsible, not much will happen. Since we have one person responsible for the program, she makes it happen. "It's time schools stop treating internships like step children." said Wofford. "We feel it's the responsibility of schools to provide ail types of educational experiences to students, not ju - 7i structured book learning. And we believe in an internship for each and every student. 01... t. Or tifir-A N I: 1 ......:00.2 L 2 3 4
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