MANSFIELD, Ohio – The campus of The Ohio State University at Mansfield and North Central State College hosted its third Internship Meet and Greet and Speed Networking session Friday morning inside the campus’ Eisenhower Hall.
The event works to connect students with businesses for internship opportunities. OSU-M/NCSC Internship Program Coordinator Tracy Bond, along with NCSC Career Counselor Caitlin Rethorst and OSU-M Career Services Coordinator Pam Schopieray, organized the show.
Bond said 107 students registered to participate in the speed networking sessions, which had more than 45 local employers in attendance.
OSU-M Dean and Director Stephen Gavazzi said, first and foremost, this event is another example of the joint partnership between OSU-M and NCSC.
“We’re attempting to always put the face of the Mansfield campus in front of the community as a combined partnership,” he said. “This is all about the students, and from what I just heard, this is the largest group of students participating in the internship event today.”
He added that seeing more students attending this event yearly shows its importance.
“In turn, we continue to hear from the business community that this is an extraordinarily important way to connect our campus back into the community and meet its needs,” Gavazzi said.
NCSC President Dory Diab agreed.
“I am so proud of this program because it symbolizes the reason for its existence,” he said.
After representatives from the two institutions opened the program with insight into the importance of networking and student success stories, there was a 15-minute breakout sessions for students and employers, followed by the speed networking sessions, which lasted from 9:50 to 10:50 a.m. in five-minute intervals.
Bond; Gavazzi; Diab; OSU-M Associate Dean and Associate Professor of English Susan Delagrange; and NCSC Associate Professor of Business, Industry, and Technology Lynn Jones all spoke during the opening program.
Of the many students at the event was NCSC mechanical engineering student Josh Lydy, who said he was hoping to find an internship or full-time job at the event.
“It helps out a lot because over the last year, being a student, it’s hard to find any internship or jobs in my field, so this is a good opportunity,” he said.
Freshman OSU-M students James Downey and Joe Wimer also were participating in the event.
“I think it’s really important that we all come out here and get this experience that really helps us further ourselves,” said Downey, a marketing major. “We all can use this experience because everything matters – all these little experiences that we learn are all the thing we can take and expand upon in our future.”
Wimer, a finance major, had similar thoughts.
“I think it’s important to start the networking process early, so I can start getting my name out there” he said. “That way when I am looking for an internship, potential employees will know who I am and what I am looking for.”
There were six industry fields represented, including business, engineering, human and public services, information technology, and marketing and graphic design. Each industry was color coded, allowing students to easily locate his or her desired field.
Jim Tenant and Kate Mick, of RBB Systems in Wooster, were among the employers seeking talent. Tenant said he and Mick were there looking at employees for sales and technical support.
“Honestly, we’re finding some difficulty in hiring new people that have the skills and training we need, so we’re actually going a little farther afield,” said Tenant, general manager of RBB. “This is a common problem with a lot of employers, and we also want encourage people in this situation – I’m an alum from here a long time ago, so I’m glad to come back here and try to help out.”
RBB Systems manufactures electronic systems.
Mechanics Bank also was represented at the event and was in search of customer service representatives.
“We’re always looking for people to make a difference in our organization and who have a heart of service, and we’re always looking for good talent,” said bank vice president and human resources manager David Baumann. “This is a great place to look for talent.”
Likewise, Chad and Victoria Diez, owners of Spazz Monkey in Ontario, were seeking local talent.
“We’re a locally-owned company, and we source all of our material locally, so I think that the last kind of piece to that puzzle is employing locally,” Victoria said. “We’re a full production house – we do design, we do marketing, we do sales, we do the manufacturing, we do kind of everything – and some of that you can freelance out of state, but we prefer to have people in-house who get to kind of come in and learn the brand and the company.”
Chad said doing everything in-house also gives interns a “great opportunity.”
“Because we are controlling the product from beginning to end,” he said. “It gives them a lot of different aspects to how you can take a product and market it.”
The 2015 Internship Meet and Greet was sponsored by Ohio Means Internships and Co-ops.
