With summer just around the corner, many students are searching for internships to get more experience in their job field, and Kent State offers many resources for those students looking for internships.

Advisers are often the first to talk to students about their future career path and interests. Steven Antalvari, director of university advising, said internships benefit students because they get real world experience.

“We want you to get some real world experience to test out your future career of interest and to be able to have something on your resume so when you graduate, it doesn’t just say whatever jobs you had as a student in college and your degree,” Antalvari said.

There is also an Experiential Learning Requirement (ELR) built into most majors. An ELR helps students gain more experience for their future careers and can sometimes be fulfilled with a specific class or internship.

The College of Education, Health and Human Services, the College of Communication and Information, and the College of Nursing are a few of the colleges that tend to have some type of hands-on experiential component.

Students with majors that do not have an ELR built into their curriculum are still recommended to search for internships, practicums or co-operatives to further benefit their future career choices, Antalvari said.

The Career Services Center offers many services to students looking for internships including resume building, choosing a major, mock interviews and networking. It also hosts multiple events throughout the school year specifically for finding jobs and internships.

Ryan McNaughton, a counselor at the Career Services Center, said the best thing a student can do when finding an internship is to network. This could be among family, friends, classmates, professors and professionals on LinkedIn, McNaughton said.

“Through those channels, they can start getting names and contacts and start knocking on some doors,” McNaughton said. 

Each of the counselors does an estimated 50 classroom presentations each year to help students become aware of the opportunities offered at the Career Services Center.

“We try our best through presentations and workshops to appointments to drop in sessions here to get students thinking that they need to be finding people doing what it is they want to do earlier rather than later,” McNaughton said.

As a career counselor, McNaughton said he believes internship candidates should be tenacious, open-minded and realistic.     

“You can’t be lazy,” McNaughton said. “Lazy people might get internships or jobs, but lazy people don’t keep internships or jobs.” 

Erin Zaranec, sophomore public relations major, is currently pursuing internships with the Akron Racers, a professional fast pitch softball team, and WKYC in Cleveland. She said it has been difficult searching for internships since she is only a sophomore.

“A lot of companies have specific year requirements so the fact that I’m a sophomore even though I’ve taken some advanced coursework, I feel like that plays against me,” Zaranec said. 

She said she believes that once she finds an internship, it will be beneficial to her future career in the public relations field.

“I feel like once I get an internship, I will definitely be more prepared for after graduation and I’ll know what to expect more going into a career,” Zaranec said.

Contact Kate Schwanke at [email protected].