Internships open doors for college students seeking jobs

Megan Jacobson and Brian Bickford spend about 10 hours a week sunning macaws, making salad for iguanas and putting tortoises out to graze. It’s often messy work, and they endure swarming flies and the occasional snake bite, but the Oregon State University zoology majors cheerfully perform their duties at Brad’s World Reptiles.

Even though they don’t receive a paycheck, the interns say they’re earning college credit and valuable real-world experience.

“A lot of vet schools require at least 500 hours of animal experience,” said Jacobson, a sophomore who’s been interning at Brad’s for a year. Jacobson wants to attend veterinary school and specialize in exotic animals, and her internship should help during the admission process.

With many students on hiatus from classes, summer is a great time to bolster resumes with workplace experience, college career counselors say.

“Students get a chance to apply what they learn in the classroom to a real-world situation,” said Rich Horton, co-coordinator for the work experience program at

Linn-Benton Community College.

Recent graduates often encounter a catch-22 when applying for their first jobs, Horton said. No one will hire them without experience, but they can’t get experience without being hired. Internships are a way to clear that hurdle.

Internships also allow students to test-drive careers and determine whether they’re in the right major.

OSU’s College of Engineering offers the Multiple Engineering Cooperative Program and the Civil Engineering Cooperative Program, which are industry-driven and financed internships.

MECOP was created in 1978 at the request of local engineering firms seeking to develop a pool of qualified college students they could hire when they graduate. CECOP emerged in 1998.

MECOP and CECOP are competitive options within the College of Engineering. They consist of two six-month internships, adding a year to the length of study. About 330 students are involved.

The programs include 14 disciplines, such as bioengineering, chemical engineering, construction engineering management and computer science.

Students work full-time and are compensated for their work at 70 percent of the salary an entry-level engineer would earn. This averages $18 per hour, according to Gary Petersen, MECOP and CECOP director.

The payroll for this internship period, which began in April and concludes in September, is about $6 million.

The programs help the College of Engineering graduate “work-ready” engineers.

“We really do turn out students who can hit the ground running,” Petersen said, adding that MECOP and CECOP students “don’t have any trouble finding a job.”

In fact, 75 percent of former MECOP and CECOP students get hired at one of the member companies, often one of the two where they interned.

Among them is Kristen Mathes, a 2002 OSU alumna and staff engineer at CH2M Hill. She interned at the Corvallis branch of the worldwide consulting engineering firm while in college and was hired after graduation.

Now that she’s CH2M Hill’s MECOP/CECOP board member, she sees the benefits students and companies get from internship programs.

“Being in this program allows us to cultivate good engineers in the state of Oregon,” Mathes said.

As for the interns, they “can find out whether what we had them do is where their interests lie, or whether they’d rather do something else,” she said.

David Chadwick, a senior mechanical engineering major, is a CH2M Hill intern through MECOP. In the past six weeks, he’s helped design a water treatment plant.

“It’s been great. No day has been the same since I’ve gotten here,” Chadwick said.

He thinks this experience, along with his previous internship at a digital projection company in Wilsonville, will help “bridge the gap between school and the real world.”

LBCC and OSU both have career centers that assist students in locating internships relevant to their majors and occupational goals.

In addition to researching opportunities online and through career services, experts recommend that students network.

“Tell anybody and everybody that you’re interested in internships,” said Carrie Coplan, a career counselor at OSU. She suggests talking to family, friends and faculty.

“Like jobs, the best internships aren’t always posted,” she said.

Mary Ann Albright covers higher education. She can be reached at maryann.albright@lee.net or 758-9518.