By Lian Bunny
Contributing Writer
The Career and Professional Readiness Center (CPRC) introduced a new program last year, the Alumni Internship Service. This program is designed to help students find internships by utilizing the university’s alumni base.
The program allows alumni to stay connected and give back to the school while helping students, according to Connie Whitcomb, director of the Career and Professional Readiness Center. Internships provide valuable job experience and are required by some majors in order to graduate.
Collaborating with Alumni Services, the CPRC is notified by the alumni when internships are available. Oftentimes, these opportunities are at the companies St. Bonaventure alumni work for.
The CPRC notifies the appropriate internship coordinators and eligible students. Internship coordinators are appointed for specific majors and can be found on sbu.edu by clicking on “Life at SBU” under services for students.
“Interested and qualified students then have the opportunity to apply, by resume submission, through the CPRC and its College Central job and internship posting system,” Whitcomb said.
Students can access College Central through the SBU’s website or College Central’s website.
In addition to helping students get internships, College Central assists alumni in finding jobs and employers finding competent workers. Creating an account for this website provides users with tools to build and upload resumes, receive emails about internships, build an online portfolio and search for job postings.
Cody Clifford, a senior marketing major, used this resource to his advantage. Marketing majors are required to complete 400 internship hours in order to graduate. During this past summer, Clifford interned for Nissan North America in Somerset, N.J.
“It was a great experience for a number of reasons,” Clifford said. “Working with a Bonaventure alumnus who is the president for the northeastern region of the company, gaining knowledge on the automotive field working directly with a number of CEOs helped me gain professional experience.”
Clifford, a former intern, said he had the opportunity to form relationships with dealers, update existing service quality reports, streamline weekly advertising notifications and temporarily join a regional distribution team to assist with wholesale administration tasks.
Clifford applauded the CPRC’s involvement in his experience.
“Not only did they help me with my resume, cover letter and any questions I had, they also gave me interview advice,” Clifford said. “The CPRC’s office is located in Room 216 in the Reilly Center as a tool for career advice.”
Although Clifford had a positive experience with this program, some students do not know much about it.
Vanessa Hulse, a freshman chemistry major, was one of those students.
“This program is a good idea because it’s very unique and I don’t think many other schools have it,” Hulse said. “I will most likely use the CPRC to find an internship.”
Although this program is fairly new, Whitcomb is optimistic about its future success.
“While in the initial stages, we are pleased to collaborate with Alumni Services and SBU alumni around this important program,” Whitcomb said. “We anticipate continued growth in the internship opportunities that will result from this ongoing collaboration.”
