Gophers Need Not Apply: College
Internships Get a New Job Description

October 1999  -  The days when college interns spent their time photocopying, schlepping files, and making coffee are rapidly becoming a thing of the past.  Today, students at Trinity University are spending their summers at nuclear power plants or working on the stabilization of a patent-based chemical.  Or they work for a semester in marketing and management at The Gap, in finance and investments at Salomon Smith Barney or in historic preservation for the City of San Antonio.  They are gaining real experience which allows them to "try on" jobs.  And some are clearing $2,800 a month after taxes, more than the professors that assist in placing them! But whether the internship is for money or credit, it "gets students doing things that make it clear to them what their future may look like," says Char Miller, professor and chair of the history department.  "It helps them make the transformation from the classroom to the world in which they'll spend most of their lives, so it is a really valuable experience." Mabub Uddin, professor and chair of the engineering science department, encourages engineering majors to spend their summers as interns because "it shows them the culture of the industry and lets them decide if this is the type of job they want."  And Dick Burr, professor and chair of the business administration department says his department is moving in a direction that will require every major to do an internship. To find out more about the changing nature of internships, contact Carolyn Wheat at (210) 999-8406 or by e-mail at cwheat@trinity.edu.

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Last updated on June 7, 2000 by the Office of Public Relations