Sunday, June 29, 1997

Interns gain valuable experience

By ANISSA CAMP and ALYSON WARD / Abilene Reporter-News

The cat's screeches pierced the air like the sound of fingernails trailing down a chalkboard.

Jeff Lester held Harley the cat still for his vaccinations while Harley proceeded to claw and bite his way through the lead-lined radiation gloves.

Even though Harley was a harrowing client, Lester said this kind of field experience is the reason he does internships.

Lester is an intern at Abilene Veterinary Clinic. He said the most important thing about his internship is that it gives him the chance to do some hands-on veterinary work.

This experience was a little more hands on than he expected.

Internships not only give college students the chance to work in their field and earn some extra money, they also give businesses another set of hands on the job and a possible source of future employees. It's a two-way street.

"It works out well for both of us," said Dr. Larry Ellis, D.V.M., at the Abilene Veterinary Clinic.

Debra Guerra, assistant to the city manager, said she hires interns for several reasons.

"We use interns in a combination of ways," said Guerra. "We hire paid interns to give us an additional person with good skills who can turn around a project and unpaid interns who need college credit and work experience."

Those are not the only reasons businesses hire interns, though.

"The primary reason (we hire interns) is we think we owe it to the profession," said Ruppert Rangel, an architect with the Tittle Luther Partnership.

Lewis Migliore, manager at Wagstaff Law Firm, said the internships they offer, which are called "law clerkships," are used primarily for recruiting.

'The main purpose of it is sort of a trial period, to see if this person is someone the law firm would consider hiring as a lawyer someday," Migliore said. "And at the same time, it gives the law clerk a chance to see if this is a law firm that they would like to work in someday."

In the Hendrick Medical System Community Relations Department, two former interns were hired just after they graduated when the positions they were qualified for suddenly became available.

Amber McElyea recently graduated from Abilene Christian University. She is now a public relations specialist for Hendrick.

"I just run my own accounts now, whereas as an intern I was helping somebody else with their accounts," McElyea said.

She said she was already prepared to step into her position because she had worked in the same capacity as an intern.

Shannon Lollar, who recently graduated from McMurry University, also worked in the department as an intern and now is a special projects representative.

Lollar said her experience as an intern made her realize exactly what community relations work required. She had expected to get to talk to people all day, she said, but she was surprised to find out that about 80 percent of her job is writing, newsletter layout and computer work.

"It was wonderful for me to get over that," she said, and find out what she wanted to do in her field.

Shanna Wilkinson, a junior at Texas A&M University, is volunteering as an intern at Abilene Regional Medical Center. She said she has learned more about physical therapy from the experience she's gained this summer.

"There are certain areas that I think I didn't know were included in PT," Wilkinson said. "But that's why I'm glad I did it - that's the reason I did it.

"I think it's good, because that way you're prepared because you know what you're getting into before you start it," she said. "It's different - school and a career are two different things."

Some businesses require that the interns be in their junior or senior year of study, whereas other businesses will hire freshmen who want to check out a profession to make sure it's the right one.

"We hire interns because they are wanting to go to veterinary school, or they think they do, and they're wanting to see how it is," said Ellis. "We also need part-time help during the summer."

Students are selected for internships in several different ways.

Sometimes students take the initiative and contact employers for interviews, and other times employers contact universities for referrals to possible interns.

The requirements businesses place on prospective interns are as varied as the reasons they hire them. Good work skills and a willingness to learn are qualities interns should have, employers say.

"They must be responsible, timely and do the job satisfactorily," Ellis said.

Intern duties are also a gray area. They can be structured or flexible, depending on the employer's internship program. Some businesses have a structured program that dictates an intern's job description.

At Wagstaff Law Firm, a handful of law clerks are hired each summer to complete structured six-week programs. The clerks usually have completed their second year of law school, and they apply what they've learned to do research and to assist the lawyers with their cases.

Just as some internship programs can be structured, others have flexible duty requirements.

Alison McCleskey, a junior at Southwestern University, is one of four summer interns in the community relations department at Hendrick.

"I think that we've all mainly been assisting people," she said.

McCleskey said that, just as regular employees benefit from having previous experience, she has worked more effectively because of her experience working at Hendrick in the past. She volunteered at the hospital during high school and worked last summer in another department.

Employers say there are potentially serious liability and safety issues when businesses hire interns. The students aren't licensed in their respective fields and don't have degrees. An intern could make a mistake that might cost the business, but the businesses have come up with checks and balances for ensuring that the interns' work is thoroughly reviewed.

The veterinary interns are under a vet's instruction, the architect intern's drafts are reviewed and checked and the CPA intern's work is sent through several CPAs who check it.

There are a wide range of internship programs along with a wide pay scale.

Wages vary from business to business, from volunteer work to the $600-a-week law clerk position.

The architect intern makes less than 50 percent of what the full-time architects make, but it doesn't seem to bother him.

"The experience is really good, and in the past it was hard to get a job in this position, so I am glad I have this one," said Michael Flowers, architect intern with the Tittle Luther Partnership.

Some interns make up to 75 percent of what a recent graduate in their field would make, but most make from 50 to 60 percent of full-time wages.

Hours on the job aren't uniform from one business to another, either. Interns work anywhere from 15 to 50 hours a week.

Internships can be completed for money, experience, college credit or any combination of the three, and there are no limits on the number of internships a student can complete - just limits on how many count toward a degree.

Katherine Echols, a community information intern with the city manager's office, is a journalism major working in her third internship. She said that variety in her internships has helped her decide on a career.

"With the different internships that I've done, I've seen the different aspects of the media and it has guided me toward which path I want to take," Echols said.

While schools try to prepare students for internships, there is no classroom training that can truly prepare an intern, said Lester, who is on his ninth veterinary internship.

"At first I was thrown into the internship, and I learned through my mistakes," said Lester. "I think that's the only way you really can learn, is through your mistakes."

(Editor's Note: Anissa Camp and Alyson Ward, authors of this article, are interns in the editorial department at the Abilene Reporter-News.)