Students, faculty, and staff met in the Preston Room on April 15 for a luncheon and presentation of Emporia State’s inaugural microinternships.

Last spring, Director of Career Services Ryan Horsch and Associate Director of Career Services Joel Ewy spearheaded a microinternship program at ESU intended to allow students to develop career and field relevant experience by partnering with department faculty and staff on a paid internship project of their choosing. 

“We see a real need for students to get experiential learning. We thought, ‘we’ve got to give them opportunities for this stuff,’ and campus has a need for it too,” Ewy said. “The projects that we selected were more hands-on than administrative kinds of tasks. What we loved about it was that it was above all kinds of departments with all kinds of ideas.”

At the luncheon, the four interns and their mentors presented their work and the skills they’ve developed through their internship.

“I got a lot of real-world skill applications, which was really interesting. I’ve got a lot of good information to put on my resume now,” said public relations, advertising, and applied communication senior Grace Jacobs. 

Jacobs worked with Brandy Clark, Marketing Director of the Teachers College, to develop a communications strategy for the elementary education program that was marketed towards incoming students. 

The presentation also featured an internship more closely associated with traditional research. Senior biology major Caleb Liermann and associate professor of biology Erika Martin worked together to have Liermann sample aquatic life and abiotic habitats at McDowell Creek, submitting biannual reports to the private landowner of the site.

“At first, it was for a class and we were really just going through the motions,” Liermann said. “But then getting to do it myself, by myself, was really motivating.”

Junior physics education major Alexis Hatvick echoed a similar experience on their own internship. Working with STEM Outreach Director Daphne Mayes, Hatvick aided in and helped construct activities for ESU’s Science Saturday events. 

“I’ve gotten a lot more confident in my abilities to not only be creative in my science degree, but also in leading and collaborating with others,” Hatvick said. 

Rounding out this year’s internship presentations was junior health and human performance major Kamon Haydock and assistant professor Erin Blocker. Kamon worked with ESU’s Lifestyle Empowerment for Alzheimer’s Prevention (LEAP) program to work with their social media accounts and specifically advertise and aid with developing a men’s exercise regimen.

“Having your boots on the ground and being able to do stuff you’re learning in class is great. Professors get the concepts to us and then we don’t really get the implementation of it until we can apply it to real life,” Haydock said. 

Closing the presentation, Ryan Horsch answered questions on the criteria considered for next year’s internship applications.

 “We’re going to evaluate them off three criteria: are the duties more advanced than a traditional assistant…does the student have actual responsibility for the project…and do they have a clearly defined start and end,” Horsch said.

This year’s application is due by April 28. For more information, contact Ryan Horsch or Joel Ewy at Career Services.