Walking Taco April 2009

Externships Let Students Explore Future Careers
Over spring break, 24 students, ranging from first-year to senior, participated in Cornell’s Externship Over Spring Break program. After seven years, this Career Services program is going strong, with increasing numbers of students applying and participating each year. The program allows students to participate in a job shadow experience with an alum or professional in a field of interest to gain insight into possible career paths. The brief experience lets students explore an area of interest without having to dedicate an entire block or summer to an internship, and builds great networking connections for future opportunities.

To participate in the program students must complete an application, due before winter break each year, including a resume, several fields of interest, and locations where they have housing available over spring break. At the beginning of January, students meet with Career Services to further discuss preferences, locations, and goals. Career Services then works to match the students with a sponsor.

Ron Logan ’11, a music and computer science major, participated in the program to learn more about the daily activities involved in working in the technical side of the media and advertising industry. He completed his externship at Metro Studios in Cedar Rapids, shadowing CEO Keith Hindman and several others. “I learned quite a bit about the people behind the scenes producing commercials, websites, radio shows and how they use technology to create a polished end product. I got the chance to sit in with web developers designing a page for a local hospital, a video edit for Aegon, and a video shoot and edit for a webinar” said Logan.

Logan’s experience introduced him to several possible summer job opportunities and made him feel more confident about his majors and career after graduation. He encourages other students to participate in an externship to see what the real world looks like in possible career paths and make great connections within a field of interest.

Senior Rebecca Sullens learned about several full-time job opportunities due to her externship with Kari Lammer, Director of Workforce Initiatives with the Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce. Sullens, a sociology and Spanish major, participated to expand her network and knowledge of the Cedar Rapids community. “Kari is responsible for bringing new employment opportunities and job seekers to the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City area. Her job is to promote the area as a place that can meet the needs of both employers and job seekers and serves as a liaison to help them find each other” explained Sullens.

Sullens had the opportunity to attend a career fair in Dubuque with Lammer and spent time in the Cedar Rapids office where she was able to meet a variety of others working at the chamber. “I learned a lot about the inner workings of the Cedar Rapids business world and gained a better idea of how I could become successful in it” said Sullens. The experience solidified her passion for working in the areas of event planning, marketing, fundraising or recruitment and exposed her to the opportunities available in the business world.

“I advise every student to participate in at least one internship during college and I wholeheartedly recommend the spring break externship experience!” commented Sullens. She encourages students to take advantage of the opportunities available while in college, since once you graduate these are not always an option. “By participating in a spring break externship you can potentially increase you professional network by leaps and bounds” stated Sullens.

An interest in physics, chemistry, and mathematics, caused Jake Czaja ’11 to explore the field of engineering over spring break. Since he is not certain of his career direction, Czaja wanted to learn what a specific field is like, and the skills and education required. “My externship was a series of meetings with different individuals from an engineering firm, Howard R. Green Co. in Cedar Rapids. I met with individuals from different aspects of engineering: transportation, wastewater/treatment, buildings services, even urban planning and landscape architecture” said Czaja.

During his externship, Czaja was able to view some of the projects the firm is currently working on and the level of planning, design, communication, and teamwork required to oversee the completion of a project. “The externship experience reaffirmed my confidence in my studies and what we as students are doing here at Cornell. If you are a student like me who has been going to school most of his life and has not fully understood what the working world is like, then the externship program is a great opportunity to explore and discover what other people are doing, working on, or striving towards. Who knows, you might find some form of occupation you never thought existed” summarized Czaja.

For more information about the Externship Over Spring Break program contact Career Services.

Ga-eun Oh and the Director of Human Resources at the Four Seasons Las Vegas	Allie Jagielo and her sponsor, a physical therapist at Wisconsin River Orthopedics
Loi Nguyen, Vo Ba Nguyen, and Yee Mon Phyu at Hills Bank in Mount Vernon	Jake Czaja at Cedar Rapids engineering firm, Howard R. Green

Additional 2009 Externships: