While some students may travel a decent distance for an internship, NMU provides several on-campus internship opportunities.
Internships provide students real-world experience, where they can apply what they have learned. According to Steven LaFond, assistant director of Career Services, a job need not necessarily be advertised as an internship to receive credit.
“[An internship] can be a regular job, as long as it is related to a major or minor and sanctioned,” LaFond said. “The intern has to be doing something professional. Academic departments at Northern can grant credit, if they determine if a job is relevant.”
Students must pay for internship credits, LaFond said.
“Students have to coordinate ahead of time with a department head or intern coordinator [to receive credit],” LaFond said. “Some departments have their own requirements, such as a weekly log or writing a paper, but it varies by department.”
Some offices and departments can be approached to create an internship for a student, according to LaFond.
“Internships can provide a work reference and an offer of full-time employment, in addition to pay, credit and a practical, relevant work experience,” LaFond said. “
According to Sandra Haavisto, controller in the NMU Controller’s Office, the Controller’s Office offers a paid internship for accounting majors.
“We have one to two interns at a time, with the internships lasting one to two years,” Haavisto said. “[Interns’] work include parts of full-time employment work, such as assistant in a cost study, financial statements and (financial) footnotes. It helps them prepare for careers as CPAs (Certified Public Accountants), in accounting firms and financial markets, [such as] Wall Street.”
The internship is limited to accounting majors and a minimum GPA of 3.0 is required, Haavisto said.
“A two year internship makes [students] pretty competitive,” Haavisto said. “We work with them to prepare a resume their last year and give them references. Most of our interns graduate with a job or being accepted to graduate schools.”
Reannon Dykehouse, senior graduate-bound English major, served an internship with Passages North, NMU’s literary journal, for two semesters. According to Dykehouse, she earned six credits for the internship, with four credits awarded in the first semester and two credits earned in the second semester.
“As a freshman, I took EN 211(B)…and my professor of that class recommended Passages North, the volunteer aspect, to anyone who was interested in pursuing any type of creative writing as a career,” Dykehouse said. “Since I went regularly enough as a volunteer, the faculty adviser and the graduate assistant both offered me this internship.”
According to Dykehouse, the internship is unpaid for undergraduate students.
“My first semester was spent sifting through manuscripts and having to send out rejection slips,” Dykehouse said. “The second semester, we were close to issuing a complete journal, so my time was spent line editing and really miniscule detail orienting. My favorite part were those moments when I’d go through 30, 50, 70 pieces, none worth publishing and then an envelope we’re not expecting pops up, with a fantastic piece.”
The internship exceeded her expectations and called it a great opportunity for anyone interested in publishing, not just limited to fiction, Dykehouse said.
For more information on internships, visit www.nmu.edu/careerservices/internships.
