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Internships Critical To A Useful University Education

by Drew Dixon
04/29/2008

As the academic year comes to an end for many students, the real learning is about to begin.

During the regular academic calendar, many students find themselves wondering what, exactly, they are actually learning. Calculus students studying Sir Isaac Newton’s theories and Spanish classes learning contexts that even the teachers say, “No one ever talks like this, but it will be on the final,” stretch to find why they even bother to give up precious time that could be better spent playing Halo 3.

The answer is usually one of two things: parents or scholarships.

The initiative to sit down and stare at a book filled with graphs, linear equations, or text in a different language while one’s roommates are laughing hysterically at the Chappelle Show DVD playing downstairs is beyond most students. This is when the universal question will always, if not spoken, at least crawl through one’s mind, “When am I ever going to need to know this?”

The answer is never.

That’s not true, but for the rest of us that didn’t understand how to count the cards while watching 21, it’s a pretty logical query that helps to fuel the fire that some call senioritis.

As the summer roles around, however, many students choose to leave the comfort of their 8 a.m. classes and instead, begin working in a position just below the window washer on the corporate totem pole. Yes... internships, the buzzword in any advising appointment.

“Your GPA does not matter,” as one university teacher so succinctly put it. A 4.0 or a 3.79 look great on a piece of paper, but ten or twenty years down the line, no one will care about what grade was received on a finance final, even though it was on the same day as an organic chemistry final, and multi-variable calculus was the day before.

Not to say that studying is a waste of time and that school is unimportant. Learning will never be irrelevant, but never in any type of job will an executive say to his or herself, “Well, John is a good, hard worker. He’s very dependable, and he always does more than is expected of him. But Joe can recite all 18 stanzas of Poe’s "The Raven"... I think I will give Joe the promotion.”

The job force simply does not work like this. Performance and production are what companies want to see, and it’s almost a guarantee that the CEO of the company will not care if his intern learned the entire Periodic Table overnight.

Do not be discouraged. Nothing bad will ever come from knowing too much. The scene from Good Will Hunting where Matt Damon challenges the Harvard student in the bar on his readings and knowledge will never look as cool in real life as it did in the movie, but there is nothing shameful about being smart. Employers want to see that this isn’t an applicant’s first time walking into a business atmosphere. Kids with 1600 SAT scores can do keg stands, too. That doesn’t mean that their boss will be impressed. Half-off margarita night on Tuesdays is not an excuse to come in Wednesday looking like an extra from Animal House.

It’s not hard to get an internship. Many of the professors at the university would be more than happy to help their students get in contact with employers looking for summer interns. Being that it’s almost May, most of the summer intern spots are more than likely full, but ask anyway; it will show the professor some initiative and possibly make up for all those Friday classes that were missed nursing the “Irish Flu.”

So go forth, take what you’ve learned - or what you haven’t - and start developing relationships that will actually be beneficial to employment. College lasts for four years, parents nag for 25, and retirement benefits don’t kick in until 65. Until then, it makes sense to at least fill the day with something that will be used for the rest of one’s life, not just until the course final.

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