Internship opportunities provide UW-Superior students with real-world experience and employers with identifying new talent

Students shuffling from room to room and building to building with the flow of the academic day. From grade school to graduate studies, education takes on a familiar rhythm. Classrooms, lecture halls and laboratories are all important in the learning process for college students. Yet for some students, the benefits gained through an internship can provide a lifetime of learning opportunities.

“Internships are win-win-win partnerships for students, employers and our region,” said Thora Papineau, Outreach Program Manager/Employer Relations with UW-Superior’s The Link Center. “Regardless of a chosen major or intended career field, internships can play a pivotal role in a student’s career development and future job search success.” 

Recently, UW-Superior students have participated in internships with businesses and organizations such as Barko Hydraulics, Cenovus and Enbridge to the DECC, Essentia Health and the City of Superior.

Benefits of internships include allowing students to explore and learn about career fields from the inside while acting as a bridge between college and the professional world. Internships also allows students to practice communication, networking and teamwork skills while meeting new people. After graduation, students who participated in an internship will have a valuable addition to their resume by being able to show evidence of initiative, reliability and responsibility. Often, the internship even opens the door to a potential future job offer or recommendation, along with also enhancing graduate school applications.

“Through the recommendations of my transportation and logistics management professors, I was able to secure internships at Lake Express, LLC., in Milwaukee and with the Duluth Seaway Port Authority,” said Korey Garceau, who graduated this spring with a transportation and logistics management major and a minor in Spanish.

With the two internship opportunities, Garceau, from Manitowoc, Wisconsin, gained experience working in both an operational setting and an administrative setting.

“I feel that through these very different opportunities, my understanding of the transportation industry became well-rounded and that I am better equipped to find a career in the field,” he said.

Employers benefit from hosting interns by identifying potential new talent, meeting short-term and special project needs and can reduce recruitment and training costs through potential retention of interns. Hosting an intern also helps support the university and increases a business or organizations visibility to college students.

MAKING THE CONNECTION

For businesses and organizations interested in offering internship opportunities to students, assistance is available. The UW- Superior Link Center serves as a liaison between the community and the university by supporting collaborative partnerships between employers, students and staff in several ways. The first is by supporting UW-Superior students in exploring, searching for and making the most of their internship experience. The Link Center also assists employers in developing successful internship programs for their organization, posting their internship opportunities in Handshake, and making connections with UWS internship coordinators in academic departments and majors.

International students at UW-Superior can also participate in internship opportunities. Through Curricular Practical Training (CPT), a temporary authorization for internships related to a student’s major field of study. International students can work part-time while school is in session and full-time during breaks. Typically, this corresponds with a currently enrolled class.

“One thing that people don’t realize is that international students will need to have a job or internship offer before we can authorize them to work,” said Salisa Hochstetler, interim director of the Department of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at UW-Superior. “Companies do not need to sponsor them or pay for any visa processing. From a company, our office will need an offer letter with details like the amount of hour they will be working, start and end date, and nature of the job. CPT is authorized by term. If students were to be offered a year-long internship, they may need to apply for CPT for fall, spring and summer semesters. What that means for the company is that they may need to submit another job offer letter if the dates were to be extended. Again, our office authorizes CPT, so it’s usually doesn’t take that long.”

At UW-Superior, students and employer partners are both encouraged to utilize the Handshake recruiting platform. Through posting their job and internship openings in Handshake, employers build brand awareness at UW-Superior and get their opportunities in front of students. Students can also create specialized job search parameters and Handshake will sort and suggest relevant job and internship opportunities that match interests. Internships can be posted at any time throughout the year, but employers are encouraged to post internships as soon as possible.

At UW-Superior, 76 percent of students graduate with an internship or field experience. Many of these experiences are in UW-Superiors professional programs of business, social work, public health and teaching. Irrespective of major, all UW-Superior students are encouraged to complete an internship. 

“Internships help students develop essential career readiness skills to prepare for the next steps in their career journey,” said Papineau. “In turn, employer partners can build and utilize their organization’s internship program to intentionally expand their future talent pipeline and help to develop career-ready students. For our region, internships help showcase the workforce opportunities available in Northern Wisconsin and for some can retain students in the region post-graduation.”