An Internship: What It’s Really Worth

Entry by Colleen Borgmeier and Andrew Stoelting, Summer Coordinator Interns, PACE Community Action Agency

For all of you skeptics out there who are wondering whether or not an internship is worth your time, we are here to tell you that it is most definitely worth your time, and money in some cases!  Some universities, like Ball State, require that you have an internship for most majors.  Other universities don’t require it, but it is highly recommended.  Anything that can add to your resume, especially an internship, shows that you have more specific job skills in your career area. 

Andrew and I are working to organize a volunteer day, Race to PACE, where the community comes in and volunteers their time to help benefit Early Head Start and Head Start.  We were given this opportunity to coordinate this event about two weeks into our internship.  With no prior experience organizing events, Andrew and I were a bit nervous to start work on something we had little information about.  However, we were put to ease since we had two different majors, mine being Family and Child, his being Business Administration –  we were able to combine our knowledge from previous work experiences, information obtained from classes, and personal experiences from volunteering with other agencies to start creating this day of volunteerism.

Skills we used in school have proved to be more than beneficial when organizing this event and working within our internship, such as:

• Time Management- Setting a goal to have tasks completed and actually meeting that goal is a great way to keep on schedule.
• Organization- Being able to decipher which things are more important than others in the time frame you have to get things done will help you keep organized.�
• Communication Skills- Whether speaking to your professor or a business associate, it is important to have knowledge of what you are speaking about, speak clearly, stick to the point, and never use slang!  Non-verbal communication is key; sit up straight, don’t mess with your hands, hair, etc., keep a relaxed stance, but don’t cross your arms, and finally exit with a nice firm handshake.
• Critical Thinking- Critical thinking is independent problem solving, gained through experience.  It is important to develop your critical thinking skills early on. 

Our skills are continually developing through our internship here at Pace. In fact, I am sure that we both have gained much more knowledge about each of these skills, specifically from this internship.  Including an internship on your resume where you organized and implemented an entire event on your own is definitely not a downfall, and for Andrew and I, will in fact put us ahead of others in the future when we look for “real world” jobs!