Jordyn Patrick recently completed an internship with Greater St. Cloud. Here is what they had to say about the experience.
During this internship, my work has been centered around strengthening the connections between SCSU students, faculty, employers, and the broader community through identifying gaps in communication channels and utilizing GSC resources to help fill them.
Key areas include:
● Internship and Employer Engagement
○ Developed and distributed internship resources (“Internships 101” flyers for both students and employers and employer templates including job postings, evaluations, and offer letters)
○ Created an all-investor/local employer contact sheet to help streamline communication between the University and broader community
○ Collaborated with the Career Center, ELODs, and local employers to better understand the barriers they are facing
● Student and Faculty Engagement
○ Identified gaps in student organization career development by creating and distributing a survey
○ Supported student groups (including the Society for Women in Engineering and the Association for Women in Computing Machinery) as they were looking for community and professional connections
○ Planned and facilitated student focus groups with student organizations and first-year residential halls to better understand the student experience as it related to career development
○ Planned and facilitated a faculty focus group within the Psychology department to better understand how professors integrate career development in the classroom and what barriers or ideas they have
○ Created a GSC “snapshot” flyer to be distributed to student organizations or other student channels so they are aware of how GSC can support them as it related to career development
● System-Level Findings
○ Conducted an analysis of high-growth careers in Central Minnesota using DEED data
○ Developed a working list of SCSU faculty and stakeholders to better understand roles and appropriate directories
○ Identified inconsistencies in internship tracking and employer engagement across colleges
● Event Planning
○ Helped plan Community Intern Day (June 10th) to connect local students with the broader community
Outcomes:
● Improved access to tools and resources
○ Internships resource materials now available for student, employer, and Career Center use
○ Investor/local employer contact sheet available for Career Center and ELODs to streamline community communication pathways and bring awareness to local internship opportunities
○ GSC informational snapshot available for students to improve their awareness of resources available to support them
● Strengthened cross-campus and community connections
○ Established ongoing connections with the Career Center, ELODs, faculty, SCSU staff, and local employers to foster continued collaboration
○ Built connections with student organizations to better link students with community opportunities (ex. volunteer opportunities, local employer site visits, job hunts, employer panels, and other community connections)
● Insights for SCSU improvement
○ Identified inconsistent internship tracking
○ Highlighted inconsistencies in community engagement and career development across programs
○ Collected student and faculty feedback on gaps in career development and experiential learning
○ Identified need for centralized and simple “front door” for employers who want to work with SCSU
Goal of Presentation:
The goal of this presentation is to:
● Share key findings from student, faculty, and employer outreach
● Present strategic recommendations for how to improve career readiness and employer engagement at SCSU
● Propose a pilot set of simple, actionable “next steps” that can be implemented to improve University outcomes
My role was to gather perspectives and identify patterns across students, faculty, and employers. The aim of this presentation is to share what I have learned, promote a discussion around career development at SCSU, and generate feasible ideas based on student, faculty, and employer feedback. The intention is not to offer final solutions to the University, but to encourage discussion about opportunities for improvement.