KSMU's Michele Skalicky talks with Missouri State University President Dr. Richard "Biff" Williams about collaborations with community organizations that allow students to gain real world experience.
I want to start by asking, what does that collaboration look like? How does it work?
Williams: Well, we partner a lot with local businesses. One thing that I have found really refreshing in the Springfield community is how much the business community wants to interact with our students. So there's a number of ways that our students can interact with local businesses. They can do internships. Sometimes they're in a class where guest speakers are coming and telling about the field, and other times they have summer internships. So there's a variety of ways that they can get involved.
And do you have people actively working with organizations to seek out experts who might come in or, you know, seeking out those opportunities that students might apply for?
Williams: We do. We do in a number of ways. The faculty are a lot of the champions for our students, getting out there and calling the experts in and having them guest lecture and making those connections. But we also have a number of goals in our strategic plan to connect our students with their future occupation and really being deliberate on how do we give them experiences and get them exposed? We have a number of ways we do that, and it varies from every different college, but we have a lot of exposure. For example, if I took the College of Business as an example, they have a career fair where businesses come in and it's close to 250 different businesses. And so that's an opportunity for students to take their resume, walk around, get to know these individuals.
How important are internships for students, especially as they get close to graduating?
Williams: It's vitally important. If you look at this generation, they are an experienced generation. And so as I talk to students and get to know them a little bit better, one of the reasons why they choose Missouri State University is because they have these extra experiences where they get to be involved with the local businesses, learning on the job. Our mantra right now is early and often. As soon as we can get a student engaged with their future profession, the better.
How important is having that experience on a resume when it comes time to look for jobs?
Williams: Talking with employers, it's very important. Right now, employers want to know that you know exactly what you're getting into and being able to say that I'm hiring this person for this job and looking at their resume and seeing that they actually know what the job entails, they've been in a student internship or they've shadowed or they understand is really important. A lot of the employers are telling us that they're looking for soft skills. They're looking for the intangibles. They're not looking just for the book smarts. So when you have that internship, the students can be able to articulate that, yes, I know what it means to be led. Yes, I know what it means to lead. Yes, I know what it means to critically think and problem solve. And that demonstrates to an employer that this is not an entry level individual. This is an individual that's career ready.
I think some people still think of interns as just getting coffee and observing, but that's not the case most of the time anymore at least. What are these students getting to do?
Williams: So our intern — it just depends. Right now we're conducting what's called a roadshow. Part of our strategic plan is myself and Vice President Brad Bodenhausen getting out to employers and asking them, 'what is it that we, they need from us and what type of internship program?' So it varies from degree program to degree program. If you look at the health sciences, they're actually working as a clinician, being supervised, learning the trade. If you look at the teachers, they're student teaching, if you look at business, they're in there and they're learning anything from supply chain management all the way up to, you know, doing inventories to marketing to communications, etc. One good, really neat program we have right now is a graduate assistantship program, where we're working with local businesses where they can employ a graduate assistant that's in one of our master's degree programs to come and work 20 hours a week, and that will be tied to their master's degree program. So they're getting not only the book smarts, the theories and the philosophies and the teaching from the teachers, they're actually doing that work at an employer.
We offer internships here. One of those areas is the news department, and they come in and they get that real world experience. We're sending them out to report. We're sending them, you know, out to gather information and then come back and put those stories together. So I know that internships aren't just benefiting students, they're benefiting the organizations, too. What are you hearing from people who have, you know, these students in as interns?
Williams: Well, in this road show that I mentioned when we were talking to employers, we are hearing positive feedback that we retain many of these students. So when these students are at this employer, they are actually auditioning for what type of employee they will be. And so we're hearing from businesses that they like the internship program. They like getting to know these students. They like having fresh ideas. And they bring youth to the organization as well. And many of our businesses have told us that they enjoy mentoring the future, and I think that's what they really get out of it.
If a business is interested or an organization in having Missouri State students apply for an internship, what do they need to do?
Williams: So they can contact a number — they can contact the dean of the certain discipline. We have a number of advisory boards. So each major degree program has an advisory board, if they know a member of the advisory board, or they can call Vice President Brad Bodenhausen, and he can connect them with the right individual. Or they can call me and I'll get them connected.
