To Intern or Not To Intern? By Karl Martz Career Services That paraphrase of Shakespeare should no longer be the question. Recent information from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) reinforces that employers consider experiential education (hands-on work) programs to be valuable hiring tools. According to the NACE 2004 Experiential Education Survey, an overwhelming majority (89.2 percent) of employers responding reported that they have either an internship or co-op program in place, or both. In fact, more employers said they plan to either increase or maintain their co-op and intern hiring than reported plans to cut back. In the last three Job Outlook reports (2002, 2003, and 2004), employers rated their own intern programs as their most effective recruiting method. In addition, just over three-quarters (76.3 percent) of respondents reported higher retention rates among new college hires with prior work experience, and 85.5 percent reported higher retention rates among new college hires converted from their own programs. What's the bottom line? Employers view intern and co-op programs as a method important to their overall recruiting strategy. Students should view it the same way—as an important part of their overall job preparation strategy. Penn State Harrisburg Career xperience plus passion is winning combo PROF cont'd from 1 private security criminology, and criminal justice pedagogy at lUP. The two classes Gabbidon teaches here are Race and Crime and Research Methods with a focus on criminal justice. "I feel I have a gift at teaching those courses. It's very important to me," said Gabbidon. Gabbidon is currently doing research in several areas. "One area relates to misconduct in the private security sector," said Gabbidon. "Whereas most people are looking at misconduct among police officers, I'm looking at misconduct among people in the private sector, like retail security." The research project he is conducting with several colleagues, entitled, "Exploring the Prevalence and Nature of Consumer Racial Profiling Incidents among Students at a Historically Black University," looks at racial profiling by security personnel in retail settings. "I'm kind of going back to my roots in some sense," said Gabbidon. After writing a paper on the subject, Gabbidon is now collecting surveys of undergraduate African-American students to see what their experience with racial profiling has been. "Have they been profiled? If so, what happened? Did they pursue it, or did they not pursue it," said Gabbidon. "I'm in the process of getting that data." "I'm more into looking at the retail side because most people don't realize that there are almost three times as many private security officers as there are public security officers," said Gabbidon. "If we have problems with public security officers, just Services has a number of upcoming events that will provide an opportunity for you to speak to employers regarding internship opportunities (and full-time) • Pennsylvania State Government Mini-Job Fair, November 9, 2005 in the Special Events Room (E 139), Olmsted Building • Cumberland Valley Job/ Intern Fair Wednesday, February 15, 2006 at the FSK Holiday Inn in Frederick, MD. Co sponsored by Penn State Harrisburg and thirteen other colleges. Over 80 employers': • Central Pennsylvania Employment Consortium (CPEC) HJob/Intern Fair Radison Penn Harris Hotel and Convention Center, Camp Hill, PA, Thursday, February 23, 2006, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. Co sponsored by Penn State Harrisburg and fourteen other colleges and universities. Over 140 companies and organizations recruiting for full-time, co-op and internships. Watch your PSU email for additional information on how to participate or visit Career Services in Olmsted W 117! Penn State Harrisburg Career Services http://www.hbg.psu.edukareers imagine what's going on [with the private sector]." Meanwhile, Gabbidon is involved in another research project with undergraduate student John Fishel - "An Analysis of Wrongful Death Cases Involving Police Officers in the United States." "What I find thrilling is that criminology and criminal justice are fields where there's always something interesting that comes up. There are so many aspects in the field that you can research and there's always something of interest to the public or something very relative to the real world," Gabbidon said. "We have an opportunity to help inform policy makers." The project Gabbidon and Fishel are working on looks at trends in wrongful death lawsuits where police have been sued. For example, when a person gets involved in a traffic accident, feels there was some negligence on the part of the police, and then sues. Currently, Gabbidon is also working on the second of a trilogy of books involving race and crime. The first book in this trilogy, Race and Crime, is a general overview of race and crime in America, which came out this year. The second book deals with theoretical explanations that have been used to explain the overrepresentation of minorities in the criminal justice system, and in it he begins to incorporate some global views. After receiving his Ph.D., Gabbidon went to teach at a small college in Baltimore and was there for about four years when he realized he really wanted to be doing research. That is when he applied for a position at PSU, and subsequently started working at the Schuylkill campus before coming to the Harrisburg campus. STUDENTS cont'd from 2 Mahoney, who specialized in avionics, knew a bit about wiring and was able to splice into the power source for lighting in his tent. "We were the only tent that had any kind of entertainment for the first couple of months," said Mahoney, referring to a TV and Xbox that he'd smuggled in. "There were a lot of small things I tried doing for the Marines I had there," recalls Mahoney, who had 40 marines under his watch. While Mahoney, Campbell, and Elligson were in Iraq, there were certain cultural things they learned to be aware of. Something as simple as waving to someone with your left had is rude in Iraqi culture. When using the restroom Iraqis use their left hand rather than toilet paper. If you beckon someone over to you with your palm face-up, it is considered to be a sexual innuendo in Iraq. Instead, when beckoning someone to you, your palm should be face-down. Men aren't allowed to talk to women they don't know in public; this is seen as a sin in Middle Eastern culture. During Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, people who follow the Muslim faith are not to eat or drink from sun-up to sun-down. "By order, we were not allowed to participate in eating and drinking in front of them [lraqis]," said Campbell. "We were told to try and respect them as much as possible to show that we're not there to hurt them. We're there to aid them," said Campbell. The Iraqi children gave the warmest reception to American military. Elligson remembers seeing children running around with their American t-shirts and military hats on. "Everyday the little Iraqi kids would come up to us," remembers Campbell. They knew words such as "U.S.A." and, "We love you," in English. "It did touch your heart," said Campbell. Both Elligson and Campbell seemed rather disappointed the humanitarian aid going into Iraq was not portrayed to Americans. "There're a lot of things that "[Penn State] seemed like they would support what I had in mind in terms of the research I wanted to do," said Gabbidon. "The support here has been outstanding. We have a school director that has been very supportive." "My least favorite part is serving on meaningless committees," he said with a smile when asked about his least favorite part of being a professor. In his spare time, Gabbidon Dr. Shaun Gabbidon working in his office at PSH enjoys reading, especially about black history, playing basketball as a form of exercise, and spending time with his family. Gabbidon was introduced to his wife, Monica, by a friend sixteen years ago. She was working on her B.S. in chemistry at Hampton University at the time. "We've been together ever since," said Gabbidon. "She's very supportive. I can't say how supportive she's been." His wife went on to earn her News didn't make it into mainstream media," states Elligson. Both spent time working with schools in Iraq. One of Campbell's soldiers had donations of shoes, clothes, school supplies, and textbooks sent in from the states. Elligson's unit was involved with vaccinating Iraqi civilians, setting up air conditioning for schools, and getting clean water into a village. "My unit alone did numerous humanitarian efforts that really never got portrayed on the news. All you see is death and violence," said Campbell. Some, however, didn't see the American troops as providers of humanitarian aid, which lead to some tense moments for the three. "We got attacked on a daily basis, said Campbell as he explains that it wasn't just Iraqis attacking them. There were insurgents from Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey as well. Photo courtesy of Mike Campbell Sgt. Mike Campbell dur ing his seven months in Iraq. as an Army soilder.. Elligson remembers being on the move every other day in the humvees. "We're rolling through streets that are 20 to 30 feet wide in some of those cities with people walking right up to the humvees. It was kind of tense," doctorate in biochemistry at the University of Maryland. She teaches part-time at Harrisburg Area Community College. Gabbidon and his wife have three boys: Jini, 9, Jalen, 6, and Julian is 21-months-old. Gabbidon's favorite foods are Jamaican and Chinese. He likes Jamaican food because his family's Jamaican and Chinese because he's a vegetarian and enjoys the vegetable dishes. His Photos by Elif Kaynak /Capital Times favorite drink is Sprite. He doesn't drink alcohol. Gabbidon was born outside of London, England. His parents moved there from Jamaica in search of work opportunities. He and his family came to the U.S. around the 19705. "We lived in Brooklyn for ten years at the Crown Heights," Gabbidon said. "It's not far from Ebbet's Field, which then was the projects." Gabbidon said he loved his time The Capital Times, November 7, 2005 said Elligson "Looking back in retrospect, you can't really tell who your friend or enemy is over there," said Elligson. lED's, or Improvised Explosive Devices, have taken a toll Elligson describes lED attacks as old artillery rounds rigged to go off when a car goes by. They are not easy to spot, however, because they can be hidden in things such as broken down cars "It can look like a normal situation, said Elligson, "It's really easy to get complacent and become the victim of one of these attacks." Elligson's scariest moment came on one of his first days in Iraq. He was at an airport where a runway and taxi-way crossed. He decided to walk across the dirt, thinking, after all, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Suddenly he saw a group of people waving frantically for him to go back. He didn't understand. "In that area, they'd found 153 mines strewn throughout the airfield that the Iraqis had left." Thankfully he made it to safe ground without injury. "My biggest fear wasn't that I wouldn't come home, but that one of my soldiers wouldn't," said Campbell. October 25'h marked the 2000'h American death in Iraq. Of those 2000, 104 were Pennsylvanians. Soldiers who safely made it home had a challenge of making the transition back into civilian life. Elligson described coming home as feeling surreal, "I was lucky I still had time in the Marine Corps when I got back, just having the structure there; still having to be prepared and work helped out," said Mahoney. A few times Campbell found himself reacting to iOud'il'Oises out of instinct, but for the most part, "it's been a rather easy in Brooklyn and cried when he had to move to Long Island, New York, in 1980. "Even though it was becoming a little more dangerous," said Gabbidon, "you know, we had shoot outs and all kinds of stuff. But, it's kind of what you knew. It almost becomes a normal part of your existence. And I had friends there." "I went to New York City public school for the first five years of my life and did wonderful," he remembered. After attending a Long Island school, Gabbidon graduated from high school in 1985, went to college, and moved from New York for good in 1986. Gabbidon says his parents have been a very influential part of his life. "They expect a lot out of me. They always have. They're some of the most hard-working people you can ever imagine," said Gabbidon. "There used to be a show In Living Color and they would make a joke about a Jamaican woman who works like five jobs and everybody laughs," said Gabbidon. "But that's the way my parents were. They would do whatever was necessary." "My mother is 60-years-old and she is still working full-time at a nursing job she's been at for 30 years," said Gabbidon, "but she still works part-time on top of that. Their work ethic is something that cannot be understated in terms of them being influential." Other influential people Gabbidon talked about were his older brother, his wife, and his great teachers he had over the years, ranging from his public school years to the university where he earned his dcctorate. "Professor Nicholson was my first African-American professor," said Gabbidon. "He was one of Photo courtesy of Mattheew Mahoney Sgt. Matthew Mahoney, U.S Marine Mahoney spent nine months in Iraq. transition," said Campbell, thanks to his friends and family. "A lot of people questioned why we were going over there, what we were doing," said Mahoney. Although there are no protests against the soldiers as there were during the Vietnam War, the anti war groups are raising publicity. Cindy Sheehan lost her son while he was deployed in Iraq. She made headlines when she parked herself outside of Bush's Texas ranch demanding to talk with him. "I've seen southern Iraq where it could be a beautiful country, but Saddam and his sons decided to dry up the irrigation coming off the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and killed tens of thousands of people in that part of the country." Mahoney believes going into Iraq for weapons of mass destruction was a legal way to get in and help the citizens of Iraq. Mahoney has also seen the terrorist training camps in Iraq. At one camp, they spotted a Boeing 747 that was used to teach the terrorists the ins and outs of the airplane. "She [Cindy Sheehan] is saying her son died in vain and I just can't understand it," said Mahoney. "We went over there and did something for a group of people that are powerless to do anything for themselves. What is more noble than that?" asks Mahoney. the sharpest professors. He just made me proud. There were so few minority professors at my undergraduate institution and he had a profound impact on me." Leah Pellet helped him when he was homesick during his undergraduate years. "Besides teaching me about Russia and all these other countries in class, she did what was necessary to keep me there," he recalled. Professor Chambers was an undergraduate English professor who encouraged him. "I wrote an essay on my life growing up in Brooklyn and she read it to the class and it kind of inspired me with my writing," said Gabbidon. In graduate school, Jeff Senese, currently vice-president for Academic Affairs and dean of the faculty at Philadelphia University, also influenced him. "He really inspired me, he said I could do it," said Gabbidon. At the doctoral level, Gabbidon says Timothy Austin and Helen Taylor Green were influential to him and his career's path. Professor Gabbidon's favorite place to travel is Florida to visit his dad, who unfortunately was affected by hurricane Wilma. "He had leaking in the house and part of his roof collapsed," said Gabbidon. "I don't think they're going to have power for a month." "Growing up, I was very close to my dad. I miss my dad. It's kind of tough," said Gabbidon. "I like going to Florida as much as I can," he added. "Did I mention how supportive my wife is?" said Gabbidon, when asked if there is anything he would like to add. It is obvious that Gabbidon is as passionate about his family as he is about teaching.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers