Internships come in all shapes and sizes – credit-bearing and non-credit, paid and unpaid, all times of the year, all places, in many fields.  Regardless, they are of increasing importance in the world of higher education, and raising funds for them will be a priority for the University in the coming years. Funding would offset unpaid or low-paid internships so that students could afford to accept them. 

Stan Macdonald ’65 is one of those who have stepped up to fund an internship. Macdonald, a retired journalist who was a visiting professor at St. Lawrence recently, has provided the expendable Macdonald Journalism Fund “to help give students involved with journalism at SLU professional work experience to improve their journalism skills,” he says. He is funding two internships, one at North Country Public Radio in Canton and the other at the Watertown Daily Times.

“My Macdonald internship with North Country Public Radio has been a life-changing experience,” says Stephen A. Knight ’12 of Harrisburg, Pa, who worked at the station during summer 2011 and is co-editor of The Hill News this fall.

“The staff has welcomed me into any aspect of the station in which I show interest,” Knight adds. “Access to the news room has allowed me to develop a sense of the questions and obstacles faced by journalists. NCPR's digital media team often picks my brain as a representative of the computer generation. And I am happy to have dusted off my audio production skills.”

Knight expresses his “gratitude for Mr. Macdonald's contribution to my education and future career. This internship has shown me the many challenges of our time, which can be hard to understand from the academic bubble,” he observes.

Vice President for Academic Affairs Valerie Lehr reinforces the educational value of internships.  “They help achieve our goal of offering a significant experiential course or academic experience to each of our students,” she says. “National research shows that such experiences have a high impact on student learning.”

“Internships are more important than ever to the college student experience,” adds Carol Bate, director of career services. “Employment research shows that the competencies that employers expected their new full-time hires to have five years ago are what they expect their interns to have today.  The internship is the new on-the-job training where students develop critical skills such as analysis, communication, teamwork, and project planning in a professional context that they are expected to have on day one as full-time employees.” 

In addition, Bate adds, as the recruiting and hiring processes have become increasingly digital, the tendency of employers to hire from their intern pool with whom they have had personal interaction has increased considerably over time and continues to rise.

“As a liberal arts institution we’re already teaching students the foundational skills such as research, writing, collaborative learning and analysis that are critical to developing the professional competencies that employers are seeking,” Bate continues. “We also, however, need to impress upon students even more the importance of developing these skills in a professional context through internships.”

Bate cites as one illustration Shannon Smith ’13, of Cazenovia, N.Y., who had a summer internship with the Chesapeake Research Consortium at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s Chesapeake Bay office. With funding from the Michael Clark Fellowship, provided by Michael Clark ’81, and the sponsorship of Mike Jarvis ’01 of NOAA, she researched estuarine ecosystems and aquatic habitats and sampled invertebrate and fish populations.

“Having an intern keeps one in touch with what's new and what's fresh,” says Trustee David Officer ’67, who has sponsored a great many St. Lawrence interns and is behind an internship in the University’s New York City Semester, which commences in spring 2012 (see list).  “The provider, the intern and SLU all benefit. The provider gets work accomplished, the intern learns a great deal since there is nothing like practical experience, and SLU benefits because our students generally are the best advertisement for the worth and value of the University.” 

Director of Admissions Alison Almasian agrees. “Any increase in the number of internships is a positive for our admissions marketing efforts,” she says.  “The more stories we can tell that highlight the active learning that takes place at St. Lawrence, the better.”.