INTERNS: UNIVERSITY STUDENTS GET EXPERIENCE ON THE JOB

For accounting major Connie Otto, it adds up to a learning experience.

As a student intern at Boatmen's Bank in Cape Girardeau, the Southeast Missouri State University junior says she is gaining valuable experience and academic credit, too.

"I work four to five hours a day," said Otto, who also finds time to attend classes at Southeast.

Otto began working as a part-time teller at the bank last May. But this semester she has moved to the bank's accounting department to serve an internship for which she receives not only academic credit but pay as well.

After the internship, Otto said, she expects to return to her regular teller job.

Otto said the internship may give her an edge in landing an accounting job when she graduates. "I think it will give me the experience to get a job."

She said students should take advantage of internships to gain work experience "because the classroom is nothing like what is out in the real world."

Anthony Jansen, an industrial technology major at Southeast, is also sold on the value of intern~ships. Jansen, who will graduate this spring, is working 24 hours a week as an intern in the metallurgy lab at the Dana Corp. manufacturing plant in Cape Girardeau.

Jansen is getting paid for the work, as well as earning academic credit.

"It gives me real good experience that I wouldn't have had otherwise," he said. "It's more hands on.

"I know I have a real good one (internship) as far as the experience I am gaining," he added.

Like Otto, Jansen believes that internship experience will put him in a better position for finding a permanent job in his field upon graduation.

Otto and Jansen are among a growing number of Southeast students who are seeking work experience in their chosen fields through internships or co-ops.

"Internships and co-ops are becoming more popular," said Loretta Schneider, assistant director of the career planning and placement office and coordinator of the intern~ship and co-op program.

Schneider said her office is working to encourage more students to take advantage of such programs. In 1990-91, about 200 students participated in intern~ships.

Internships can be paid or volunteer, and may extend for a full semester or just for the summer. Students usually work as interns while also attending classes.

Co-op students generally work full time in a paying position for a semester and then attend classes the next semester. "The co-ops we have dealt with are mostly in computer science," said Schneider.

One Southeast student is working under a co-op arrangement this semester at the sprawling Noranda Aluminum plant in Marston. Two other co-op students are employed with McDonnell Douglas, the giant aerospace firm based in St. Louis.

Schneider said it generally takes co-op students longer to graduate because of the work arrangement. "It may take them seven or eight years but they are paying for their education as they go."

Internships and co-ops benefit students in several ways, Schneider said. "It is a way for students to pay for their education," she said. But more importantly, she added, it provides them with useful work experience and helps them get their foot in the door for future employment.

"Students find out very quickly you can't get a job without experience and you can't get experience without a job," observed Schneider.

Internships and co-ops provide students with such experience. "It allows them to apply what they have learned in the classroom," she said.

Businesses also benefit. "What we are finding out in the marketplace," said Schneider, "is that many companies are doing their hiring through internships and co-ops." By doing so, companies save on the cost of having to train new employees since the training was, in effect, accomplished during the internship, she said.

The university also benefits, she noted. "We find students become ambassadors for the university when they are out there in the work force."

Laura Beggs, a graduate assistant at Southeast who works with the internship program, said there are a wealth of internships available nationwide.

"I speak to about five to 10 students a week about internships," she said.

About 50,000 U.S. employers recruit students every year, with 80 percent of those students receiving job offers, said Beggs. Nationally, on average, students who have completed internships earn $7,500 more than those who have not participated in such programs.

Schneider said students can take advantage of internships with businesses, not-for-profit groups and government agencies.

Generally, students must have 75 hours of academic credit to be eligible for internships, she explained.

The career planning and placement office in the University Center maintains a resource library listing companies and groups that offer internships.

Schneider said students who have worked as interns have been pleased with the results. "They come back with big smiles (in many cases) because they know they have a job when they graduate."