The Indiana Crusader Connection is an exciting internship opportunity available to Valparaiso students in the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Business, and Engineering. Funded by a Lilly Endowment grant, the Indiana Crusader Connection offers $1,000 scholarships to students who complete unpaid internships of at least 100 hours with Indiana employers.
What this opportunity means in practical terms is that you may be able to earn $10 an hour, and at the same time gain experience that will be extremely valuable when you go on the job market. While most of you are probably aware that having work-related experience is important, you may not know just how important it is these days. Here are a few revealing statistics: in its 2005 survey of employers, the National Association of Colleges and Employers reported that on average, 61.9% of new hires had internship experience. What’s more, NACE reports that relevant work experience—in the form of internships or co-ops—ranks higher on employers’ priorities than GPA! Dr. Phil Gardner, Director of Michigan State University’s Collegiate Employment Research Institute, reports in 2005-2006 Recruiting Trends that graduates with “prior workplace experience will be the first hired.”
In addition to earning $1,000 and gaining career-related experience, Crusader Connection interns receive one free additive credit the semester following their internships. For this reason, second-semester seniors are not eligible for the scholarships.
If you know of an employer that you might like to work with, that’s great. Stop by the Career Center, and we can help you with the administrative details of putting an internship together. If you don’t have any ideas but would like to get some experience, we’ll try to help you find an internship site that matches both your current academic work and your career aspirations.
