The success of the University's internship program is due in large degree to the tireless efforts of Robert Dame, director of internships for the CBE. Bob knows his way around corporate America with 25 years of experience in sales and as editor-in-chief, vice-president, president, and founder of Dame Publishing (now Dame/Southwestern College Publishing, a Thomson Learning Company), then on to CEO positions with Gulf & Western subsidiaries, as well as a franchisor of 52 franchises of Boxworks.
Dame, Dean Gibbons and members of the CBE faculty regularly meet with company executives to solicit new opportunities and secure placement for the 800 plus students in the CBE. To date they have helped secure approximately 2,000 internship slots with 300 companies. For Bob Dame the experience has been especially satisfying, "After all the years of being supported by academics in my publishing career, I felt I owed something back to the academic community," said Dame. "In our internship program students are not only gaining incredible work experience, but are also getting their foot in the door to some major career opportunities."
An added bonus to the CBE Internship program is that 80 percent of interns are paid. Bob Dame feels strongly about this benefit: "Students are compensated for making a real contribution to organizations."
In addition to Dame, other keys to the success of the program are its organization and faculty involvement. A detailed Internship Manual outlines the program and its requirements. From the conception of the internship, the application requirements, student responsibilities, resume and letter types, explanation of faculty and corporate sponsor involvement, to evaluation forms to achieve college credit, it all is outlined in the manual.
The CBE faculty strives to see each student maximize their potential when securing an internship and realize their ambitions. "Students often underestimate their ability to compete in the job market and underestimate the value of their education at Longwood," believes Mitchell Adrian, associate professor of management. "As a result we have been requiring students to seek out internships at major organizations that allow the student to make a significant contribution within their field of study. We have been working to 'kick them out of the nest,' to explore the opportunities that exist in the world."
The success of the program is exciting to Adrian, "We are seeing success after success in which students not only intern at major companies in the state of Virginia, but to places like New York, Chicago, Nashville, etc. We have even had interns whose work took them to London, Calgary and Japan. Many of these internships have led to lucrative job offers after graduation. When students maximize the potential of our program they learn that they can accomplish most anything they aspire to achieve in the business world. Our goal as faculty is to encourage and help them maximize their internship potential."
The program's success starts with a student's vision or dream of the ideal experience for his or her career objective. Facilitating this vision are Bob Dame, the CBE faculty, staff and the internship manual, yet one other vital part of the program's success is the challenging learning environment provided by sponsoring firms, be it business, corporate or governmental. The intern works with a supervisor at the sponsoring firm and a faculty adviser to identify the roles and responsibilities for the internship experience. Both instructor and supervisor monitor the activities of the intern and provide guidance throughout the internship experience.
While at a recent job fair, corporate recruiter Michael Lawston, financial services representative for First Investors Corporation, had this to say, "Longwood has a model internship program, the quality of professionalism among their interns is impressive. They are punctual, willing to try and eager to learn. First Investors has benefited tremendously, as the interns actually allow us to be more efficient with our time.
"From the outside, it appears that the program's efficiency has a lot to do with the way it is run by Bob and the CBE faculty and staff. They work as a liaison between us and the students, and are there constantly. Sometimes students need a push to get them to go through the door; Bob and the staff work at keeping doors open for internship possibilities." Michael is a 1996 business administration graduate of Longwood.
 Bob Dame discusses an upcoming internship with Louis Shackelford, '04, from Newport News. A finance major in the CBE, Louis has secured an internship with Fagenson Company Inc. and will be interning at the New York Stock Exchange in Manhattan this summer. |
Courtney Redmond, '03, from Alexandria returned this winter semester after an extensive internship with Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. In addition to her paid internship where she received three credit hours, Courtney took additional courses through Disney and Florida State University and returned with a total of 12 credit hours toward graduation. Also, she was named one of Disney's spring 2003 Longwood Campus Representatives.
It has been said that education gives a student a well of knowledge from which to draw, while experience molds education into a marketable skill. The CBE takes this view to its fullest. It strives to give students the best education, yet it wants to give them a challenging real world experience in order to market themselves competitively. The graduates of Longwood University's College of Business and Economics enter the working world prepared for its challenges.
Jennifer
Wall
Media Specialist