Internships

I hope my positive internship experience can inspire someone else to participate in an internship. I believe that an internship is a great way to get your foot in the door, gain on-the-job experience, and continue to learn and grow outside of the classroom. It's an opportunity that I feel fortunate to have and I'm glad that I get to be a part of it.

- Travis

My name is Rachel and I studied business and marketing at Mid before I transferred to Central Michigan University. As I studied at Mid, I started to realize how many different areas of business there are. I had chosen to pursue a degree in business because I knew what it entailed; but there were so many other options. I had no idea how I was going to figure out which part of business I wanted to be in, without experiencing different aspects beforehand.

I received an email from my business teacher here at Mid about an available internship position. Since the position was mostly remote, I applied for it. The application process was so easy.

The role was a social media marketing position, at a non-profit called Gladwin Area Friends of the Theatre or GAFT. The process was set up just like a normal job offer and I was given the description of what I would be doing and what the position paid.

My internship at GAFT ran for one semester and the Director of the Career Center, Amy Dykhouse, helped me every step of the way. I was able to set my own hours each week, so I never felt stressed about school, and I was even able to count the internship as a course and receive credit for it, while getting paid.

I absolutely loved working for GAFT. It was scary at first because, I was still learning and I wanted to prove myself. However I soon realized that this was supposed to be a learning experience for me and that the whole point of this internship was to gain knowledge and learn as much as I could about the social media aspect of business. Everyone I worked with was super understanding of school and patient with me as I learned. The amount of knowledge I gained throughout the time I spent with the team is something I needed in order to move forward with my degree choice. I ended up staying with GAFT for both the winter and summer semesters because of how much I enjoyed working with them.

Some of the things I learned during my internship were

• How to use different editing sites like Canva that I used to make flyers, posters, and newsletters for upcoming events or fundraisers.
• How the inner workings of a non-profit organization work.
• How to properly write an email to board members.
• How to run all social media accounts for the business, including creating content for those sites.

Alan Hawley, GAFT President, had this to say about my time there. “We found the Mid Michigan College Internship to be a win-win for all involved. For our group, Gladwin Area Friends of the Theatre, we got a fresh view into our fundraising efforts from Rachel, and she got hands-on experience in the field she is pursuing. We feel this is a wonderful opportunity for all involved.”

After finishing my time with GAFT, I decided to continue growing my knowledge about different areas of marketing, so I applied to the internship program at Mid again. I am currently two weeks into a new internship with the Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance.

I am excited to continue gaining more experience and working with different people and companies. Mid has so many different internship options for every area of study and degree. I would recommend applying for an internship. It is a great way to gain experience and knowledge about any career or degree, that you may not be sure about.

- Rachel

My life before starting at Mid was all about being a stay-at-home mom, focusing on my children, husband, mother, and father. It was about what I could do to help them through whatever they needed help with.

I chose to come to Mid after the passing of my father and a push from my husband wanting to see me get on track with what I always wanted to do in life, which was college. Life showed me you never know how much time you have and I wanted to be proud of myself for something I accomplished.

My life before starting at Mid was all about being a stay-at-home mom, focusing on my children, husband, mother, and father. It was about what I could do to help them through whatever they needed help with.

I chose to come to Mid after the passing of my father and a push from my husband wanting to see me get on track with what I always wanted to do in life, which was college. Life showed me you never know how much time you have and I wanted to be proud of myself for something I accomplished.

My experience was great! I accomplished things that I didn't think I could do, especially being in my 30's. I met a ton of wonderful people and really enjoyed everything I learned while I pushed through some tough times in my personal life.

The instructors were really helpful and supportive, any questions or issues I had were explained and they helped me in any way they could. Some really showed me that I was capable of so much more than what I thought I ever was.

My internship helped me realize that I was capable of more than what I learned in college. I got to be able to use and work on a computer with my CAD degree, I was able to show my skills outside the office on the road through my work with paving and I've learned a great deal about our county. I wound up getting a full-time job at the same place I interned at and that meant a lot to me. I am thankful for everything that I got challenged with in life, because I realize now that it showed me how strong I was, even if I didn't feel like I was strong at the time.

- Mandy

Mid has offered me a great opportunity to not only work in the field I am studying but to also work in my own community. It can be difficult to find promising opportunities to gain experience in your career if you are from a small town like I am, that is why I am thankful for Mid Michigan college and businesses like Weinlander-Fitzhugh for offering students the ability to internship. As a student it is great to know that Mid has your back when you are trying to reach your educational and career goals.

- Ross

Below is everything needed to begin an internship at Mid Michigan College. All documents should be carefully reviewed prior to meeting with the Director of the Career Center.

• Schedule a meeting with the Director of the Career Center to review your application, your grades in the program area, and your internship placement preferences.
• Complete the online internship application. The application must be completed as you would complete any employment application. Students are placed in an internship once all materials have been completed and submitted.
• The Director of the Career Center works alongside you to secure a business/industry placement. If you have a specific business/industry in mind, please bring the company name, address, and the supervisor's contact information to the meeting. The Director of the Career Center will contact the business to review the internship program training objectives and determine appropriate placement. All placements must be approved by the Director of the Career Center.

• Attend work on time and as scheduled. Any permanent schedule changes must be approved by the Worksite Supervisor.
• Complete tasks as assigned by your Worksite Supervisor. Your work must be accurate, neat, and completed on time.
• Complete and submit the bi-weekly internship time sheet to the Director of the Career Center.
• Successfully complete the total number of work hours required for the internship for your program of study.

• The Worksite Supervisor Evaluation of the intern is an important aspect of the field experience. This evaluation provides the Career Center Director with feedback on your job performance, attitudes, strengths, and areas for improvement. In addition, the Worksite Supervisor can provide input toward your final letter grade.
• The Student Evaluation of the internship is an opportunity for the student to provide feedback on their training experience.
• The Director of the Career Center will determine the student’s final letter graded based on the completion of hours indicated by the bi-weekly time sheets submitted by the student and the letter grade provided by the Worksite Supervisor.

While the College offers courses in many areas of study, it can be hard to practice the skills you're learning in the classroom in a real-world, work environment. There are practical applications of skills that are best developed in the field, that can simply not be duplicated in the classroom. To learn within a workplace setting, you can pursue an internship in the career field you're interested in. Internships provide an opportunity to learn in a hands-on environment, are often temporary positions, and can be paid or unpaid. The types of skills learned may range from organizational skills, people management, time management, negotiations, and much more. For these reasons alone, an internship proves to be a vital part of your educational program and development as a professional.

Area businesses and companies benefit from stronger connections to potential future employees and the ability to receive additional staff support at little to no cost.