“Our internship program has been growing and growing,” Hart-Davidson said. “I have an extremely strong commitment to MSU interns. They’re responsible for the success of my company.”

Despite increased restrictions for unpaid internships under changes to federal guidelines, internships remain an important part of college for students in many of MSU’s programs. And many students continue to find the right opportunity, whether at a local business such as Hart-Davidson Designs or in cities across Michigan.

Changed guidelines

About 100 employers from the Lansing area set up booths at Spartan Stadium for Wednesday’s Earn, Learn and Intern Fair, where they recruited students for internships and part-time jobs. More than 1,000 students were expected to attend.

Internship programs with local employers still are thriving, said Paul Jaques, internship developer for MSU Career Services Network.

“Not having an internship this year or any year is an issue,” Jaques said. “More companies want students to have that experience.”

Jaques said many companies recommend students complete three to five internships by the time they graduate. Businesses often use internships as a test drive to decide whether they want to hire a student full-time, he said.

Recent updates to the U.S. Department of Labor’s guidelines under the Fair Labor Standards Act put restrictions on unpaid internships. The changes, which went into effect before the start of this summer, allow unpaid internships only if the training experience is similar to what students would receive in an educational environment, the experience is for the benefit of the intern and the intern works under close supervision of existing staff.

The main difference created by the guidelines is in how the school communicates with employers to make sure students are getting direct experience during their internships, Jaques said.

“In hiring a temp, their job might just be to shovel snow,” Jaques said. “In hiring an intern, they’ll be working on a specific project within the company. They may also be shoveling snow sometimes, but that won’t be their only job.”

Bill Morgan, experiential learning and on-campus internship coordinator, said the new federal criteria help make sure that college students aren’t taken advantage of during internships.

“They have to truly have some educational value to them,” Morgan said. “The intern is gaining more than they’re giving and they have a fair relationship with the employer.”

Local learning

Most of the interns at Hart-Davidson Designs are unpaid and take the internships for college credit, but Hart-Davidson believes the students learn more at the company than they could in a classroom. She hires students from majors ranging from interior design to business and finance.

Other entrepreneurs at the event included the owner of Global Image Network and creator of Sweetie-licious Bakery Cafe, both Lansing-area businesses.

Kate Pleskac, a project manager for CiesaDesign in Old Town Lansing, was at the intern fair to find students hoping to learn the ropes of web development. Although she planned on hiring students for the semester, she said long-term opportunities were available if the internships were successful.

“Web development is still really hot and local,” Pleskac said. “We still have that need. People are investing in their websites.”

Morgan, who runs the Internship @ State program, said 141 on-campus internships were registered through the program during the 2009-10 academic year, which more than doubled the internships from the previous year. He said one of the main draws of on-campus internships is that they provide a manageable balance between work and school.

“Internships are part of that learning-by-doing opportunity,” Morgan said. “Classrooms have a lot of opportunities, but it’s a little bit different when you’re actually doing it.”

Real world resumé

With the downturn in the economy and rising competition for careers, internships are a good way to give examples of leadership and problem-solving in a professional environment, Morgan said.

“They’re becoming more important because students are trying to stand out,” he said. “There’s more competition and more applicants for jobs these days.”
Telecommunications junior Courtney Kendler said she thinks all students should be required to have an internship before graduation. As an intern at Fox 2 News in Detroit, she was responsible for producing a segment of each night’s news.

“I feel like I got a lot more experience than anything I’d had in any of my classes,” Kendler said. “It was very real, in-your-face.”