Internship Fair Brings Employers to PSH
Photo by Cathie McCormick Musser
Jamia Chew-Gamer and Nicole Berhard of Shippensburg University
By Cathie McCormick Musser
Capital Times Staff Writer
Mid-state employers and stu
dents from area colleges crowd
ed the PSH campus Nov. 4 for
the 1999 Capital Region
Intemship/Co-op Fair.
The fair, sponsored by 10 col
leges and universities in the
Central Pennsylvania region,
connects interested students with
employers offering internships.
According to Karl Martz,
Coordinator of Career Services
for PSH, 91 employers and 447
students attended this year’s fair.
While students from each spon
soring institution attended the
fair, “the majority of students
were ours,” Martz said.
The Capital Union Building
housed the Internship Fair
exhibits. Rows of tables decorated
with Penn State blue helium bal-
* Olmsted. Plaza
Barber
Shop
Jamesway Plaza
NO. 10
944-9364
Nexxus Products
* Shop Hours #
Monday- Thursday
8 am to 7 pm
Friday- Saturday
8 am to 2 pm
L Closed Sunday <
attended the Intern Fair.
loons lined the CUB gymnasium.
Signs, posters and brochures
introduced students to the
employers’ business and corpo
rate culture. Some displays were
slick and sophisticated. Others
were simple.
Smiling employers gathered
resumes and handshakes from
students who looked a little
uncomfortable in business attire.
Wendy Harrell, Director of
Special Events and Marketing
for Journal Publications, has had
success with the fair in the past.
She considers internships a
good prelude to employment.
“We’ve hired three people in the
past two years who started as
interns,” Harrell said.
Positions filled by recent
interns include graphic designer
and circulation manager.
“There’s always a new position
opening,” Harrell added.
She hoped to recruit three or
four interns this year, but admit
ted they usually end up with two.
Albert Pye of BioLogic agrees
with Harrell. According to Pye,
internships are a “good chance to
slowly look at somebody” who is
interested in working for the
company.
Pye’s company researches and
produces natural biological insecti
cides. Interns for BioLogic “learn
what real research is,” Pye said.
Although pleased with the fair
in general, Pye was disappointed
by omissions in the Employer
Guidebook distributed to intern
candidates.
The Employers by Major sec
tion of the handout did not list
BioLogic under the heading of
biology. Pye worried that quali
fied students would miss his
exhibit.
Students huddled at the west
end of the gymnasium seemed to
be planning their strategies.
Nicole Berhard and Jamia Chew-
Gamer of Shippensburg University
were reviewing their progress.
The pair drove 45 minutes to
attend the fair. Both women are
speech communication majors
and had been encouraged to
attend the event by their advisor.
Berhard left resumes with the
Dauphin County Public Def
ender’s staff and representatives
from Hershey Foods. She is pursu
ing a career in Human Resources.
Chew-Gamer had discussed a
marketing internship with
Enterprise Rent-a-Car.
Both women were pleased
with the fair and looked forward
to completing an internship.
While Karl Martz did receive
a few complaints, the over
whelming response to the fair
was positive. “Both the students
and employers were pleased,”
Martz said.
The great pleasure in life
is doing what people sag
you cannot do.
Walter Bagehot
HELP
SVANTE
Help Relocate Collections Into
Penn State Harrisburg 9 s
“Library of the Future"
Hours:
Dates:
December 15 - January 4
Rate:
Contact:
William B. Meyer, Inc.
Library Relocation Division
Phone:
Email:
It is only to be understood.
Brand New
Bam to 6pm
Monday - Saturday
(excluding holidays)
$B.OO per hour
Stratford, CT
800-873-6393 x 229
boverton@meyerlibrary.com
Wendy Harrell of
Journal Publications.
Nothing in life
is to be feared.
Marie Curie