When individuals apply for jobs that are related to their respective majors after they graduate, employers almost always ask for minimum of one to two years of experience, which can be frustrating.
To help fix the problem, Stan State offers lots of on and off campus internship opportunities that students can take during their semester on CalStateS4.
The on-campus opportunities are very easy to apply to, and they have various types of jobs students can choose from. The off-campus opportunities are a bit more complicated because it is a collaboration between the university and the local offices. Regardless of which kind, they all are great opportunities to strengthen students’ knowledge and put what they learned to use in the real-life situation.
Students who are working as interns shared some positive feedback on the opportunities offered.
“I think they are pretty good, so far I have been learning a lot, especially from my mentors,” said Fabian Espinosa (junior, Studio Art). “They have been really good by showing me how to do things and letting me do it on my own.”
Mentors can be extremely important when it comes to learning. Having a good mentor means that people can get the best out of the job that they are working on. Mentors can also give interns critical and useful feedback to keep them on track towards their career goals.
Another perk of these internships is that the opportunities can be offered as a class, which means besides the valuable experience students can gain by interning in those positions, they can also get credits for the course. This could help them graduate even faster.
Due to the global pandemic, a lot of businesses and companies have changed their working type, such as remote working and hybrid working, which is also effected how students feel about their internship.
“It effected maybe a little bit, not in a bad way though, because they let me work from home because there are some days that I cannot be working on campus. So, I just go home and work from there,” Espinosa expressed.
While Stan State tries to make it easy for students to get internships, the system is not always perfect.
Even though on-campus internships are very accessible, off-campus internship opportunities are not always up to date because some of the businesses do not want any interns enrolled in a current semester. Because of this, their hiring information would still be up on the website, which can cause delay during the application process.
Second, not all the majors offer internship opportunities, which makes it difficult for students in certain majors.
“I did not have the opportunity to be an intern because no one was encouraging me to reach out and it was not helpful,” said Viviana Vasquez (graduate, Psychology).
For more information on internship opportunities at Stan State, students are encouraged to check in with their major advisors or search for opportunities in and around Turlock at https://app.calstates4.com/csustan.
