Internships and Co-Ops
Each month OfficeKey hosts a lunch open to all clients called Key Connections. It allows those sharing the office to meet each other and build a stronger sense of community, while enjoying some good food and listening to a guest speaker present on a relevant topic.
On May 6th at our West Chester location, OfficeKey was honored to have Paula Harper speak at the luncheon. Paula is the Manager of Job Development of the Academic Internship Program at the University of Cincinnati.
Businesses of any size can benefit from these programs and it is good to know what’s out there. Several OfficeKey clients have taken advantage of this great resource and hopefully others will do the same. Paula explained that there are four primary types of experiential learning opportunities for UC students:
–Co-op
–Academic Internship
–Service Learning
–UC Forward
The co-op program consists of alternating terms of full-time academic study with working full-time. It is a five year commitment with no summers off. By graduation, each student will have about one and a half years of experience. All engineering and DAAP (College of Design, Architecture, Art & Planning) students are required to go through a Co-op program. Business students have the option to choose a Co-op program or take part in an academic internship.
The Academic Internship Program which Paula oversees is open to students across all fields of study. It is comprised of a two term sequence with one term devoted to study and the other to a work experience. The work portion requires 225 hr of work over the course of the term. Or an average of 15 hours per week. They can be paid or unpaid (if it’s a non-profit) but the paid positions are likely to attract more candidates.
Service Learning is a specially designed learning experience in which students combine reflection with structured participation in community based projects to achieve specified learning outcomes as part of an academic course and/or program requirement. Students do not get paid in this program because the goal of the program is to learn through service to the community.
Finally, UC Forward is a newly created program designed to foster cross-college courses that unite faculty and students from different colleges with stakeholders outside of the university; with a focus on developing new ways to tackle real world problems. The thought is that students should be able to put into action the things they are learning in the classroom, with the expectation that it will develop skills that can’t be taught in a lecture.
Students are available 3 times a year; January to May, May to August, and August to December. Arrangements are typically made at least one semester ahead so if interested plan accordingly. For more information click on the links above or contact Paula Harper at [email protected].