Local companies joined students, staff, and faculty of the Ohio State University at Mansfield and North Central State College today in a luncheon celebrating the new Mansfield Campus Business & Industry Internship program. OSU-M and NCSC Internship Coordinator Tracy Bond reported that the program had placed 34 interns into 24 local for-profit and non-profit locations over the summer months.
The new program is a joint effort of the two local institutions and kicked off this past summer through state grant funds awarded by the Ohio JobReady program. The partnership between The Ohio State University, North Central State College, and Columbus State Community College with more than 80 Ohio employers is creating nearly 200 paid internships in Ohio.
Funding for the Business and Industry Internship Program also comes from local support. Contributions totaling nearly $500,000 have come in through the But for Ohio State Mansfield capital campaign. The North Central State College Foundation will seek additional funding in an upcoming capital campaign. The funds are already benefitting local students.
“My engineering internships allowed me to gain valuable experience and helped jump-start my career,” shared Steve Haverdick, NCSC Mechanical Engineering Technology alum who has interned at Gorman Rupp and Stoneridge. “Early on at North Central State College, I was unsure of my career track within the engineering field. By completing two Co-ops, I was able to get hands-on experience working with engineering projects and now know more of what to expect after I graduate and more of what line of work and product I wanted to work with in engineering.”
Thomas Boggs, a 2011 Lucas graduate and business finance major at Ohio State, was immersed into a wide range of business activity at Cooper Enterprises. His internship saw him working from the production floor to materials purchasing to accounting. “To have that experience of various departments in the company has been very beneficial to me,” Boggs remarked, “I know the skills that I’ve taken from the internship I’ll be able to take through my education and also out into my career.”
“I try to look at internships from the student perspective. How can they get a meaningful benefit from this?” said Monty Friebal, president of Cooper Enterprises, “ We had to create a win-win solution and I think we were successful in creating it this summer.”
“The internship program is immensely popular with our community stakeholders, and will undoubtedly strengthen our campus ties to the business and industry leaders throughout North Central Ohio as we expand our numbers,” said Steve Gavazzi, Ohio State Mansfield Dean and Director. “This is a win-win-win between our students, our schools, and our business partners.”
Gavazzi ended the luncheon by noting that the program looked forward to expansion and growth in the next year. The campus had applications for business leaders to develop new positions and for students to be considered for selection during fall semester, beginning August 21.
More information can be found at www.mansfield.osu.edu/biip or by contacting Mansfield Campus Internship Program Coordinator Tracy Bond at (419) 755-4325 or bond.132@osu.edu.
