College of Liberal Arts’ Internship Partners Expo draws a crowd

The Internship Partners Expo provided an opportunity for students, faculty and staff to network with a wide variety of internship partners. (Photos by Erin Pence)

Wright State University students interested in internships got a good look at the opportunities available to them during the College of Liberal Arts’ third annual Internship Partners Expo.

Nearly 40 organizations were represented at the April 18 event in the Millett Hall Atrium, a 20 percent increase from the first expo.

“It’s so exciting to see this growing,” said organizer Wayne Stark, director of workforce development for the Center for Liberal Arts Student Success (CLASS) and career consultant with the Wright State Career Center. “We are actually going to outgrow the space.”

The expo was an opportunity for students, faculty and staff to network with a wide variety of internship partners, including many Wright State alumni, about their available internships. It attracted more than 100 students, some from other colleges, including those in business and finance.

“The expo covers just about every sector,” said Stark. “Students can test-drive a career. They can get a feel for if it’s something they are really interested in. It certainly gives them experience so when they are applying for that job they have some real-world experience.”

The expo featured representatives from corporations, nonprofits, legal services, social services, media organizations, education groups, health and wellness organizations, the arts and local government.

Stark said the organizations benefit from internships because they “get some really good students who are fired up.”

“The students are hungry. They work hard,” he said. “They make real contributions. It’s not just filing or grabbing coffee. They are contributing to projects, research and in all kinds of ways that make a positive difference They can put that on their resumes and oftentimes the internship is a pipeline to full-time jobs.”

Nearly 40 organizations were represented at the College of Liberal Arts Internship Partners Expo.

Organizations represented at the expo included AmeriCorps, the Area Agency on Aging, Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley, COLA Mentoring Program, Dayton Children’s Hospital, Dayton History, Dayton Society of Artists, DeCoach Rehabilitation Centre, Enterprise Holdings, Epluno, Good Neighbor House, Greene County Adult Probation, Greene County Family Visitation Center, Greene County Records Center and Archives, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Dayton, Human Race Theatre Company, K-12 Gallery and TEJAS, MCS T.O.U.C.H, Miamisburg Police Department, Montgomery County Adult Probation, Montgomery County Juvenile Court, Montgomery County Youth Resource Center, National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center, Reynolds and Reynolds, St. Mary Development, The Event Connections, The ONEIL Center, The Salvation Army Dayton Kroc Center, Vivial Media LLC, WACO Air Museum, Warren County Records Center and Archives, WDTN/Dayton’s CW, Wright State Athletics, Wright State Special Collections and Archives, Wright State Student Legal Services, YWCA Dayton and YWCA Dove House Hamilton.