Planning for the future as interns and scholars
The hunt for scholarship funding and internships can seem daunting. Fortunately, there are options available for USU students. Career Services provides opportunities for students to locate internships that cater to their future careers.
internships
Donna Crow, executive director for student services, said students can visit Career Services in person or online to view internship opportunities. She said they can navigate the Career AGGIE online job posting system and there are several hard copy guides available in the Career Café for students to check out.
To create a profile on Career AGGIE, students must create a login and complete a profile. Once students have completed this step, they can start searching and applying for both internships and jobs. Job seekers can specify the type of job and start dates they are looking for. They can submit resumes through the site.
“There are some supply and demand issues with opportunities in Logan,” Crow said.
She encourages students to broaden their geographic preferences to increase their chances of obtaining an internship that fits their career goals.
“Students who have completed internships are more marketable in a global economy,” Crow said. “They receive approximately 10 percent higher starting salaries, 60 percent of the time they have an offer from their internship employer by the time they graduate, and they are more likely to stay with that company compared to non-interns.”
Career Services will be holding its 22nd annual Career Fair Wednesday, March 2 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the second floor of the Taggart Student Center. Students with questions about internships can learn ways to prepare for interviews at the fair.
The Service Center recommends six steps to Career Fair success: research organizations, prepare your resume, dress for success, prepare your approach and introduction, ask questions and follow up.
According to the Career Guide provided by Career Services, when students graduate with internship experience, they position themselves for more meaningful career employment.
“Internships allow you to combine career-related work experience with academic coursework to enrich your total educational experience, while earning academic credit and pay,” states the internship section of the career guide.
The guide explained there are tools and strategies for searching for ideal internships. Crow also recommends using a career coach who will help create a strategy for finding the internship that matches a student.
If students are interested in interning for a specific company, Crow said they are more than encouraged to reach out. She said they might want to access their system to save them time.
“This just makes the process more effective for students,” she said.
Kirk Miller, a senior in accounting, said he realized employers look for potential and can look past lack of experience. Miller is interning for Allred Jackson, an accounting firm in Logan. When he first applied, they told him he was not qualified enough for the job.
“To my surprise, I got a phone call a month later saying I had an interview for the position,” he said. He did not think he had a chance so he said he took the pressure off himself and joked with the interviewers. Fortunately, he said, they loved his jokes.
“But once again, (they saw) how my qualifications were very weak,” Miller said. Two weeks later, they offered him the position.
“It has been the biggest blessing for me and my career as well as the skills they are teaching me,” he said.
Kristen Johnson, a senior in interdisciplinary studies, has an internship with the Real Salt Lake soccer team.
“I had one of my professors with connections there contact them and inquire about available positions. Then I sent in my resume. I followed up with them, got an interview and got the internship,” Johnson said.
As a soccer player, this internship suits her and her career goals well.
Scholarships
In addition to internship hunting, many students look for scholarships. Often, they do not know where to look and the process seems overwhelming.
“I’ve looked a lot (for scholarships), but nothing has really worked,” said Mckelle Tobey, sophomore in psychology. “My new scholarship is called ‘grandparents,'” she said.
Tobey said she searched all over the Internet, talked to her department, the honors department and the financial aid office.
Tobey said she felt that you have to accomplish something different from every other college student in order to receive private scholarships, “which fails when that is the goal of every college student.”
Other students express similar disappointment in scholarship searching.
“I have applied before and never heard back,” Selina Weighill, a junior in biology, said.
Jake Matthews, junior in sports medicine, said he never hears about scholarship opportunities.
“I haven’t heard about them since high school,” he said.
He is frustrated with how scholarships and other financial aid venues are set up.
“I hate how they give huge scholarships to incoming freshman who had good GPAs in high school, but I can’t get grants because my parents make too much money,” Matthews said.
Though the scholarship hunt can be frustrating, there are many resources where students can search for and apply to a variety of private scholarships. Online, students can go to fastweb.com, scholarships.com, finaid.org and college-scholarships.com and create personalized profiles. These sites will find scholarships that cater to the profile.
Many scholarships exist that specify to specific types of students based on many factors. Often, scholarships are not well publicized and are not awarded to anyone because no one applies.
According to the College Money Unlimited website, hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarship money go unawarded each year. The site recommends students take the time to sift through the many applications and apply for anything that fits their qualifications. It said students should not get discouraged when they do not hear back right away.
Scholarships are available within the university as well. Despite budget cuts, each college has some money allotted for financial aid. Students can look to their own college for details on what is available.
Utah State has scholarships for freshman, transfer and returning students. More details on requirements are available on USU’s website. For students with disabilities and health struggles there are 16 scholarships available through the Disability Resource Center (DRC) scholarships.
Students can be discouraged by the specificity of private scholarships, but through searching, they are likely to find something that matches their skill set and experiences.
– natasha.bodily@aggiemail.usu.edu