Internships offer experience, can lead to full-time jobs

Whether it’s working with politicians, spending time at media outlets or conducting… Whether it’s working with politicians, spending time at media outlets or conducting research, internships can offer students insight and experience in fields that they are interested in pursuing. Here’s a rundown of some of the opportunities available to Pitt students.

Get active in politics.

The Institute of Politics internship offers students the opportunity to learn about public decision-making and policy-making in a classroom while working for a local public figure.

Students get to work in local offices for the City Council, the County Council, the mayor’s office, the Pennsylvania Legislature or with congressional members. Past interns have been hired full-time or maintained a summer job in these offices.

The class meets once a week for two hours in addition to the nine hours that students spend in the local office of the official with whom they are placed.

A student receives two credits for being placed in the class and two credits for the actual class. Fifteen students are accepted every semester for the internship. There is no age limit and it is open to any major.

Marie Hamblett is the executive administrator for the Institute of Politics. She said that an internship is a good idea because “it lets you know whether it’s what you want to do or not,” and it helps a student network in a particular field.

Other words of advice: Get written up.

English writing internships are divided up into different categories. In the news and journalism category, students get to work for newspapers, magazines, TV stations and radio stations, including KDKA and the Tribune Review.

Public relations interns handle clients at firms or at nonprofit companies. Students interested in publishing get to work with advertising companies.

Caren Marcus Sniderman, the English internship coordinator, asks students what their goals are and then works from there to find fitting internships for them.

She also tells students to consider other areas as well. She may tell a student who is on a newspaper track to also consider writing for magazines or to think about publishing. Sniderman said that she does this because it gives students the chance to explore other areas they may be curious about.

“If someone fails now, it’s OK,” she said.

The internships are worth three credits. Students must attend a class once a week and then work 12 to 15 hours each week. These internships are also open to all majors, and the program usually gives juniors and seniors preferential treatment.

If you’re not interested in liberal arts, get well-engineered.

The University’s Cooperative Education Program pairs students with local, national and international employers. It’s available to engineering, computer science and chemistry majors.

Staff members from the co-op office are available to help students find opportunities and then go out and get them. The program is designed to give students a taste of the real world while taking a brief break from academia. Most co-ops also offer competitive salaries. For more information, visit www.engr.pitt.edu/coop/.

If you enjoy working with film, get into the pictures.

Working on movies is a possibility for students when they apply for internships in the film studies department. Currently, several interns are working with Carl Kurlander, who teaches screenwriting at Pitt. He, with the help of the interns, is making a film about a Pittsburgh and Hollywood connection.

Many production companies and businesses call the film studies internship department looking for interns.

Students earn three credits for an internship and may also receive extra credits for working on or finishing a film. They must complete 10 to 20 hours of service each week, while e-mailing weekly journals to Ellen Bishop, the film studies faculty internship sponsor. Students must also write a 10- to 12-page paper about their experiences at the end of the term.

Bishop thinks that the more connections a person has in the film industry, the better chance she has to do well in it.

“It works a lot on personal recommendations. Some of our best, most go-getter students have landed jobs in Hollywood or L.A. right out of school, thanks in part to internships and the connections that Carl Kurlander has in the biz,” Bishop said.

Internships also remind students of the real world, according to Bishop.

“Internships pull students out of the university setting a little bit and remind them that there is a bigger world out there that they are headed for,” she said. “An internship is a reminder of why you are here for four years and where you are going. The experience also often helps students clarify their goals and decide what specific aspect of the business they want to get into as well.”

Film internships are usually available at the beginning of a semester. Applicants must have at least 36 film credits.

If you want to be like Newton, get physical.

Students can work on research projects in the physics and astronomy department. Faculty members sometimes advertise that they are looking for undergraduate students, but the best way for students to gain research positions is to talk to their professors about research that is being done.

Usually, students get paid on an hourly basis for their work, but some work as volunteers.

The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center even takes students on. Students are paid through the physics and astronomy department, while working with cutting-edge computational resources and gaining experience.

Above all, get interested.

Many other departments offer internships. To find out more about particular opportunities, contact the adviser or director of the department in which you are interested.