U of M makes top 10 list for internships
Experience an advantage in job market
LaDarius Millen works 12 to 15 hours a week at a job that pays him nothing, but as the old clergy joke goes, its benefits are out of this world.
Where else, he says, could he mingle with marketing folks at the Memphis Zoo, polish up his resume, learn Excel and work in the green industry?
“It’s very fulfilling. I feel I am making a difference,” said Millen, 20, a chemistry major at the University of Memphis working in green initiatives, including a project to calculate the zoo’s carbon footprint.
The university has one of the 10 most successful internship programs of any college or university in the nation, according to the “Short List,” a quick take of data points from colleges and universities published by U.S. News & World Report.
U of M ranks No. 7 in the number of undergraduates with internships. No. 1 is Clarkson University, a small college in New York, which in 2011 turned out 603 graduates, 83 percent of whom had internships.
At the university, where more than four times as many students earned bachelor’s degrees that year, 52 percent of them — or 1,394 students — had internships. The biggest showings were among nursing students, teacher candidates and in the College of Arts and Sciences, which produces many interns, like Millen, interested in the green economy.
Internships ratchet up the number of people students know in their fields, a valuable asset when unemployment rates among new college graduates hover at 50 percent.
“It’s like a 15-week interview,” said Dr. Dixie Crase, university director of academic internships. “Companies can say, ‘ Is this someone who fits in our culture? Do we want to keep them on our short list?’”
In the fall of 2009, university leaders rolled out an internship guarantee, which says if students do their part to keep grades up and meet industry standards, the university would go the extra mile to find them internships.
“Our program has grown over time, particularly since Dr. (Shirley) Raines has been here,” said Crase. When Raines arrived in the fall of 2001, 1,333 students were registered for internships. Last fall, 2,350 students had internships, including nearly 950 nursing students.
Millen got an unexpected reward last fall when zoo officials asked him to stay on at the internship. “We are trying to get a really good handle on what our carbon footprint is,” said Andy Kouba, zoo director of conservation and research. “Ladarius is trying to get a baseline figure for how much energy we are using.
“But with so many buildings and a lot of meters spread out all over, it became more than he could complete in a single semester. We were excited when the university agreed to let him stay on and that he was willing.”
When he’s finished, the zoo will be able to assess where it can save energy and help visitors understand how they can do the same at home.
Millen also adopted the Monterrey Bay (Calif.) Aquarium’s Safe Seafood Watch program to help consumers here choose sustainable fish. His tips will be part of the Stingray Bay exhibit opening March 9. “I’m also working on developing a program to create habitat to get butterflies or bees to reproduce in people’s backyards.”
He wrote much of the “green” copy for the zoo’s website. His work can be accessed by clicking on the conservation tab at memphiszoo.org.