Colgate students go global in pursuit of internship experiences

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Career services director Michael Sciola and students

Career services director Michael Sciola (right) and Colgate students visit New York to talk with alumni about internships and careers in real estate.

Sport your Colgate gear this summer at Myrtle Beach or Disneyland, and you’re bound to hear a friendly “hello.” But what about bumping into a Colgate student in Trinidad, Vietnam, Argentina, Uganda, Korea, or Australia? It could happen.

Between June and August, students are pursuing internships, research, and service projects around the world and across America. They will investigate, teach, report the news, participate in political campaigns, plan events, save lives, and more.

Watch our news blog each week for first-person accounts as they take their liberal arts learning for a test drive and learn what it means to be a professional.

In recent years, employers and graduate school admission officers have called for undergraduates to complete multiple internships as part of their educational experience. Colgate’s Center for Career Services is answering that call, cultivating leads and funding unpaid or underpaid internship opportunities that support the career objectives of current students.

The university has made it a strategic priority to ensure that as many students as possible can accept the most beneficial internship opportunities regardless of economic considerations. Of the hundreds of Colgate undergraduates entering the workforce this month, more than 120 received grants through the Career Services Internship  Fund, made possible by the generosity of alumni, parents, and friends.

Before exhausting its resources this spring, the center awarded a record $472,508.40 to 167 students representing a little more than half of the total applicant pool. Those recipients included Charity Whyte ’16, who is serving as a peer educator and administrative intern at Africa Unite in Capetown South Africa; Nick Laub ’16, an intern at Octagon Sports UK in London; and Justin LoScalzo ’16, working with the Homeland Security Advisory Council in Washington, D.C.

Our summer internship blog series begins next week with a post from Natalie Sportelli ’15, who is applying her skills as an intern at Forbes in New York City. Stay tuned! Meanwhile, read more about Colgate’s commitment to career services in this Q&A with career center director Michael Sciola, originally published in the Spring 2014 Colgate Scene.

Is your organization still seeking intern candidates? Staff at the Center for Career Services would be pleased to speak with you. Please call 315-228-7380 or e-mail ccs@colgate.edu.