SPOTLIGHT
Federal Internships: Meeting
the Needs of Students
By Jo-Ann Raines, Director of
NJIT Division of Career Development
Services
In the fall of 2008, the bottom
dropped out of the economy,
affecting the availability of
internships and cooperative
education positions. For the year
2008-09, the National Association of
Colleges and Employers (NACE)
projected a 21% decrease in the
number of internships and an 11%
decrease in co-ops. With these
predictions, co-op and internship
practitioners faced the task of
being even more creative to meet the
experiential education needs of
students.
An old adage states that when one
door closes, another one opens up.
While private sector jobs declined,
the federal government threw open
its doors and ramped up its hiring
forecasts. Uncle Sam became
proactive in recruiting new
employees to replace the expected
exodus of baby boomers to the ranks
of retirees. The emphasis has been
on full time hires, and putting
interns and co-ops in the pipeline
for permanent positions. Resources
have been put in place to move the
hiring initiatives forward, such as
the Partnership for Public Service.
The non-profit Partnership for
Public Service has as its mission to
inspire a new generation to serve
and transform the way government
works. A visit to its web site,
ourpublicservice.org, provides a
wealth of information for career
centers and students and breaks the
myth that an intern must work in
Washington, DC. Of the many
resources the Partnership offers,
three are particularly appropriate
for co-op and internship
professionals looking for new ideas.
The first is Call to Serve, a
network designed to bridge the
knowledge gap for students and their
advisors about the benefits of
working for the federal government.
The Call to Serve network supports
over 680 colleges and universities
and more than 75 federal agencies in
their efforts to spread the news
about full time, co-op, and
internship positions. Each year,
five schools are selected to receive
a small grant to help with the
promotion of federal internships and
careers on their campuses. New
Jersey Institute of Technology is a
grant recipient for 2009-11. Another
Partnership thrust is the
makingthedifference.org web site,
created especially for students as a
source for finding and applying to
jobs and internships. Information on
student loan forgiveness, agency
descriptions, an internship
directory, facts on where the jobs
are, and other topics can be found
on the site. Third, career center
professionals can sign up for the
Partnership’s e-newsletter, Hot Jobs
and Cool Internships. The
information in each issue can be
shared easily with prospective co-op
and intern students.
Most career center professionals
are familiar with USAjobs.gov, the
federal government’s official
one-stop source for federal jobs and
employment. The web site has been
newly revamped and was reintroduced
in January, with more changes
planned. By going to the Info Center
from the home page, students can
find information on internships,
scholarships, fellowships,
apprenticeships, grants, summer
employment, and facts about the
Student Temporary Employment Program
(STEP) and the Student Career
Experience Program (SCEP).
Federal government agencies
overwhelmingly hire US citizens
only, leaving permanent residents
and students requiring work
authorization with limited
opportunities. However, internships
for non-US citizens can be found
through diligent research. For
example, the Oak Ridge Institute for
Science and Education (ORISE) is
under the US Department of Energy.
It offers internships, fellowships,
scholarships, and research
participation programs for students
and faculty, including those who
require work authorization (http://orise.orau.gov/sep/catalog.htm).
Education Career
Profile:
Carol Martin Rutgers, Rutgers, The
State University of NJ, School of
Environmental and Biological
Sciences
Carol
Martin Rutgers has a long and
distinguished career within the
field of Cooperative Education. Her
significant contributions and impact
can be seen on both a state and
national level through her work with
various cooperative education
organizations and at Rutgers, The
State University of New Jersey.
Carol was appointed the Director
of the School of Environmental and
Biological Sciences Cooperative
Education Program at Rutgers in 1987
after serving as the Assistant
Director and Coordinator for
approximately three years each. She
received the SEBS Award for
Sustained Academic Excellence in
April 2007. In addition, she
participated in the Middle States
Commission on Higher Education
Reaccreditation Evaluation
Self-Study (2006-2008) and led a
curriculum development team for the
Life Sciences Innovation Partnership
Institute State Higher Education
Grant.
Carol is an active member of the
New Jersey Cooperative Education and
Internship Association (NJCEIA). She
established and maintains the NJCEIA
membership listserv, so members can
easily communicate with one another.
In addition, she was elected as
President, Vice President of
Membership, and Vice President of
Programs. Carol says of her
experiences with NJCEIA, “I have
great memories of the support and
knowledge I gained from NJCEIA about
the field. There have been lots of
changes since I attended my first
meeting at Middlesex County College
in 1980. NJCEIA meetings used to
focus on training like today, but
formal business meetings were held
with all members at least 3 times a
year with committee meetings as a
part of the overall meeting. Members
worked to lobby the Governor’s
Office and actually got a State
Department of Education grants
program going.”
Carol has been an active member
of the national Cooperative
Education and Internship Association
(CEIA) since 1980, presenting many
workshops at national conferences
and as a member of the Awards
Committee for five years. She was
elected Vice President of Region II
in March 2001 and served on the
Board of Directors in that capacity
for two terms. In 2005, she was
nominated by the President of CEIA
to be Vice President of
Communications, in part due to her
past involvement in editing and
compiling the CEIA President’s
Newsbriefs and her role as listowner
for the CEIA members’ listserv and
the CEIA Board listserv. While Vice
President of Region II, Carol
volunteered as the Chair of the
Mid-Atlantic Cooperative Education
and Internship Conference for three
years.
Carol has shared and presented
her experiences and expertise at
multiple workshops throughout her
career. She has presented for NJCEIA
as well as for CEIA and WACE
Conferences on topics including:
Ethics, Integrating Computer Data
Base Management, Dealing with
Difficult People, and Business
Cults. In addition, since 1995,
Carol has also been the advisor for
the Kappa Theta Epsilon Honor
Society Nu Chapter on the George H.
Cook campus.
Carol will now be working at the
Rutgers Ernest Mario School of
Pharmacy as the Manager of their
Institute for Pharmaceutical
Industry Fellowships (http://pharmafellows.rutgers.edu/).
The program provides Doctor of
Pharmacy graduates 1- and 2-year
post-graduate, industry-based
training programs, from coordinating
clinical trials to acting as a
liaison with regulatory agencies and
research organizations, while
preparing them for challenging
positions within the pharmaceutical
industry. NJCEIA wishes Carol well
in all her future endeavors and
thanks her for her service and
contributions to the field.
NJIT’s Career Awareness Month
Promotes Co-op and Internships to
Students
By Jo-Ann Raines, Director, NJIT Career
Development Services
Cooperative
Education practitioners are always on
the lookout for creative ways to present
the benefits of major-related work
experience to students and employers. At
NJIT, Career Development Services (CDS)
is in its fifth year of promoting co-op
through Career Awareness Month, held
this year from September 17th to October
23rd. From its kickoff with Craig
Treadway, morning news anchor at CW11,
to the information session offered by
Microsoft, career advisors incorporated
the co-op message into many of the 30+
events.
Hosting a variety of activities, high
campus visibility, and bringing students
and employers together are key to the
success of Career Awareness Month and
spreading the co-op message. The
schedule included civic engagement,
information sessions, resume review,
program and services information, and
raffles. Many of the events such as
Career Service Information Day and
Instant Approval Day were held in the
Campus Center, the hub of student
activity on campus. Other events such as
Resumania, Company Information Sessions,
and Practice Interviews put students and
employers together. In past years,
students have received job offers for
co-ops or internships from recruiters
putting them through the paces of an
interview. A bonus to such a
concentrated series of events is the
visibility of CDS to faculty and staff
as well as students and employers. Co-op
was incorporated through flyers,
mini-commercials, promotional materials
and giveaways, and including co-op
students as panelists.
Three strategies are important to a
successful schedule of events. First,
like popular shopping malls, having
anchors at either end is a must.
Beginning with Roadmap to Career Success
with Mr. Treadway and concluding with
our 16th Annual Collaborative Career
Fair with Rutgers-Newark on the
penultimate day of Career Awareness
Month put brackets around a
comprehensive series of events that had
something for everyone. Second,
co-sponsorship of presentations is an
effective way of gaining a good
audience. One such presentation,
Students in Service to America: Careers
in the Federal Government, was co-hosted
by the Albert Dorman Honors College.
Last, diversify your resources as much
as possible. Theresa Clarke of the
Nuclear Regulatory Agency in Maryland
facilitated the federal government
presentation for students. Earlier in
the day, she met with NJIT faculty and
staff at a luncheon to familiarize them
with careers and internships available
with the federal government, so that
they would be able to share information
with students.
In addition to the 1400 students who
attended the Career Fair, Career
Awareness Month attracted over 900
students, providing forums through which
cooperative education was promoted and
increasing the number of co-op
applicants by 11%. The marketing effort
was rewarded by increased awareness of
career services as a whole and for co-op
in particular.
