With the Internship Fair coming up on October 4th, 2019, right now would be a good time to focus on why it may be beneficial to become a part of an internship program. If you are looking to volunteer, HCC has a Service Learning Center that can help you get involved in your community. Service Learning has partnerships with dozens of organizations throughout the community, all of them offering volunteer work that allows students to utilize the knowledge learned from classes in real life situations. You might be thinking, “who would want to work for free?” For a student who hasn’t taken part in internships or volunteer opportunities before, an internship allows them the ability to try out their career and make sure that they understand what goes into their potential career choice. This includes questions like: what are some of the responsibilities you may have, as well as, what obstacles might you face day-to-day. Experience like this is invaluable to someone simply trying to get their foot in the door.

The connections you make and network you build with people are aspects that make internships stand separate and above only going to classes for your degree in the field. Certain non-profit organizations offer the ability of giving back to the community and being able to potentially get offered a job. There is a saying, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” and this is perfect example of it. The skill-set you acquire through your classes can pose a benefit if you were to get your hands dirty at the internship itself and find out what it actually takes to be in that career field. However, getting to that point requires an entire network of people who are already pursuing their career goals, ready and willing to help coach or teach. They not only know the ins-and-outs, but you are granted the ability to absorb knowledge you wouldn’t otherwise have access to.

With the fair approaching, it would be the perfect opportunity to find an internship, participate in Service Learning, and research places that fit your interests.