The number of Sweet Briar students serving internships in 2006-07 rose sharply over the previous two academic years, according to a recent report from SBC’s Career Services Center.

Sixty-four students will have completed academic internships for credit by summer’s end. That is an increase of 30.6 percent over the 2005-06 levels and 146 percent since 2004-05. What’s driving the numbers may be rooted in the Shape of the Future – the name of the strategic plan the College implemented in 2004.

Rebecca Penny '08 reads to kids during summer camp while interning at the Wintergreen Nature Foundation.As part of the plan, the College guarantees prospective students who want or need internships that they will get them. Wayne Stark, director of career services, says his office – along with many others on campus – are doing a lot to keep that promise.

“Our field- and major-specific career events have placed internship and full-time opportunities in front of students vis-a-vis alumnae and recruiters and employers,” he said. “We have also worked hard to strengthen and enhance the MonsterTrak database.”

MonsterTrak is a shared database developed by Virginia Women’s College Career Services. It is one example of partnering with organizations such as the VWCC consortium or the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges to create new internship and employment opportunities.

In addition, Stark and associate director of career services Kristin Ewing have stepped up local outreach by arranging tours of local companies and developing programs with agencies such as the Lynchburg Office of Economic Development, the Chamber of Commerce, Region 2000 and the Young Professionals of Central Virginia.

“Another area that has made an impact are the advisory councils,” Stark said. “We partner with the alumnae office during their advisory councils to bring students opportunities to interact and network with alumnae.”

The advisory councils are new tools designed to create off-campus resources for students as part of the academic advising team model that was launched with the Class of 2009. The advising system also is an SOF initiative.

Still in the pilot stage, councils – whose members may include alumnae, parents, friends of the College and even students – have been developed for five academic departments so far. The goal is to add a few departments each year until the whole curriculum is covered.

Ewing notes that one of the biggest drivers in students acquiring internships is that several departments now require them to graduate. She’s also noticed that more faculty members are urging students to seek academically meaningful summer engagements.

The push reflects another Shape of the Future objective – to reinforce theory through practice by tying students’ non-classroom activities to their classes. That was the case for Rebecca Penny ’08. She said her academic adviser encouraged her to find something “new and exciting” this year.

The Wintergreen Nature Foundation offered the internship she wanted, but did not have the budget for a stipend. She was able to accept it thanks to a PACE scholarship from SBC. PACE provides summer stipends to allow qualifying students to work in volunteer positions related to their coursework.

As a programs intern at the Foundation, Penny has been asked to do everything from environmental education to surveying streams and transporting an injured fox to a wildlife hospital.

“It is certainly providing me with insight into an area that I might want to work in the future. My biology major knowledge is also useful in programming, creating interpretive displays, and communicating with staff and visitors,” Penny wrote in an e-mail. “I know I am a great help to the Nature Foundation and I am gaining skills and experience in the ‘real’ working world.”

Often students find opportunities through faculty advisers or family and friend networks. Ewing was meeting nearly every week with Megan Behrle when the rising junior learned about a full-time paid internship at the NavSea Warfare Center from a contact of her father’s.

Sometimes career services’ role is limited to resume advice or providing the right resource. Senior Elizabeth Caldwell saw listings at USA Today in a book borrowed from the center. Now the environmental studies major with journalist aspirations can boast of being published in both the online and print versions of the paper.

“Right now, I’m working on an article that will be in the paper [this] week about how to make your home green,” Caldwell wrote in an e-mail. “That’s pretty cool.”

But even when the Career Services Center staff is deeply involved in the process, students are ultimately responsible for the outcome. “They’ve got to put the work into it and it’s interesting to see how that plays out,” Ewing said. “If they’re interested, we make it happen.”

– By Jennifer McManamay, SBC staff writer