An Out of Classroom ExperienceUSC College students put academics to work
By Kaitlin Solimine
July 2004
It’s not your typical summer job.
On a sweltering July day, USC College international relations major
Rema Christy battles the crowded streets of Tokyo as she leaves her
internship at an international tax and accounting firm and fights her
way to the subway.
“I am not very experienced in the tax and accounting system in the
U.S., let alone that of Japan,” she says. “Needless to say, I was a bit
out of my element.”
While working in a wide variety of summer and school year internships,
USC College students are learning more about themselves, how their
studies apply to “real world” experiences and how their career goals
match their academic pursuits.
“Internships give undergraduate students a glimpse of the components
necessary for career success,” says Eileen Kohan, associate dean and
executive director of USC’s career planning and placement center.
And what is unique about USC College, says Kohan, is that undergraduate
students are typically participating in two to three internships during
their four years at USC.
The prevalence of the internship experience among USC undergrads
certainly points towards a growing national trend. Internships have
become an increasingly important aspect of a student’s resume because
of the emphasis employers now place on work experience. USC is
certainly providing access for its students to gain this experience;
the university’s career planning and placement center places more than
6,000 students in internships each year and nearly 60 percent of
students who have a job lined up by graduation had done an internship
during their undergraduate career.
Internship opportunities for USC students vary from working in a
typical office environment, to a U.S. Embassy abroad, to a soap opera
set. All internship placements are geared to complement the classroom
experience and USC career advisors work hard to offer as many different
and innovative options to students as there are academic possibilities.
“Rather than spending an entire academic career building towards a
particular profession, internships offer liberal arts students a taste
of what’s ahead without the commitment to that field that a
professional degree would require,” says Kohan.
One particular internship program unique to USC is the USC Freeman
Fellows Internship Program, which is funded by a grant from the Freeman
Foundation and provides stipends to USC undergraduates to live and work
in Asia for a summer. Placements for students range from a non-profit
organization in Kuala Lumpur to a Fortune 500 company in Beijing, and
in these environments, participants not only gain useful work
experience, but also exposure to a foreign culture.
“The Freeman Fellow internship solidified my passion in a career that
links the U.S. with the rest of the Asia Pacific region, and it gave me
the confidence to put myself in new situations and adapt to new
cultures,” says Freeman Fellow Connie Liu.
Liu, like many other students, came away from her internship with a
sharper focus on her career. However, there’s even a benefit to not
liking one’s internship placement. Kohan cites that one of the most
beneficial aspects of an internship is when a student has the sense
that the internship in which they participated is not a career they
want to pursue.
Christy, who was a Freeman Fellow, knows of that realization first
hand. After working in Tokyo, she learned that while she always thought
she wanted to work abroad, she may rather work at an international
company based in the United States. “The experience shut a door so to
speak, but it’s still a positive thing because it helped to shape my
life,” she says. “I benefited enormously from the experience since I
think that realizing what I don’t want to do is as important as
discovering what I do.”
In the end, most students feel that the practical experiences they gain
from internships give them greater confidence in themselves and their
ability to make the jump from ivory tower to steel skyscraper.
As one student, who speaks for many, says, “Despite being placed in a
brand new work environment in which I was expected to deliver quality
product in material I had never dealt with before, I succeeded — and did
well.”
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