Hollins Interns Make Good Things Happen
For more than 45 years, Hollins has offered students the opportunity to engage in internships during academic semesters, January Term, or summer. In a rapidly changing economy and competitive marketplace, gaining work experience through internships is more important than ever. Hollins defines an internship as a learning opportunity in which a student gains supervised, practical experience with a business, nonprofit, or other organization. Students should have flexibility to explore and to discover, to ask pertinent questions, and to solve interesting problems. In addition, internships provide students with specific skills, introduce them to the rigors of the workplace, give them insights into a field, and allow them to measure their own abilities against the demands of a given profession.
What constitutes an internship:
- Supervised work experience with intentional learning outcomes and goals.
- An environment where students can ask questions about the work, field, or career paths.
- Educationally enriching projects with outlined responsibilities, mentoring, quality training, supervision and evaluation.
- 75 percent of assignments should involve autonomous projects and progressively increased levels of responsibility so students can show initiative and creative problem-solving.
- Clerical work should be kept to a minimum.
What an internship is not:
- An unsupervised job with tasks unrelated to career experience and growth.
What employers gain:
- Motivated and well-rounded liberal arts students.
- High quality work.
- Fresh perspectives on organizational systems.
- A talent pipeline of potential future employees.
- Increased visibility of your company, nonprofit organization, or agency on our campus.
Questions?
The CDLD staff is ready and eager to support, advise, and connect you with resources as you develop your career path!
Jeffrey White
CDLD Director
Amber Becke
Associate Director
careercenter@hollins.edu
540-362-6364
Resources
- Hollins Employer Internship Guide (PDF)
- Join Handshake to post a job or internship.
- Handshake Employer Quick-Start Guide (PDF)
- Hollins Statement to Third-Party Recruiters (PDF)