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Cooperative Education Office offers internships to all students at Metro
By Allison Bailey
abaile19@mscd.edu

Many Metro students don’t realize the Cooperative Education Internship Center is located on campus and, according to Brenda Sabo, a coordinator at the center, they often don’t know how to use the office to get placed in an internship.

Students interested in an internship should call the office and schedule an appointment with a coordinator, Sabo said. To qualify for an internship, students must have at least a 2.5 GPA, 30 completed credit hours and be enrolled at Metro for a minimum of one semester.

“What we do is put them on a list to receive job notices that are relevant to their major,” Sabo said. “They get those, look them over, decide if they want to apply and then they contact us.”

One way students get internships is by contacting a company directly and sending a resume.

“We’re happy to help students with their resumes, and based on our long experience with our internship employers, we know what they’re looking for in a resume,” Sabo said.

The Cooperative Education office can also help students who are not getting the kind of experience they expected from an internship. Sabo said students need to talk to the employer first and the Cooperative Education Center can counsel students on how to do that effectively.

“If that doesn’t work we counsel them on how to quit their jobs,” she said. “We usually expect students to give two weeks notice.”

Having hands-on experience is a huge advantage when looking for a job and students are often able to network during an internship, so they can know people in the industry when they graduate. According to Sabo, an internship may also show students that a particular career path is not for them.

“It’s better to find that out now than to find out after you graduate,” she said.

But the most important thing is work experience.

“What sets you aside from all the hundreds of thousands of other graduates out there is if you have actually worked in an environment that is similar to what they’re going to be offering you,” she said.

The Cooperative Education Center has recently helped place students at companies like Time Warner Cable, the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, RTD, the Food and Drug Administration, various Colorado school districts and the governor’s office.

“We work with large corporations and small businesses, we work with government agencies and we work with nonprofits,” Sabo said.

For students to get the most out of an internship they should take it seriously and they should be assertive enough to ask for the kind of experience they feel they need.

Through the Cooperative Education Center students can decide with their faculty advisor and their employer what they intend to accomplish during the internship.

Students also participate in an evaluation process where they and their employer each complete evaluation forms. This gives the student feedback on his or her strengths and weaknesses and what needs to be worked on. The employers don’t see the written evaluations by students and the Cooperative Education Center may use the information to determine if an employer is a good placement for students.

“We’re right here near Einstein Bros. and just west of the West Classroom,” Sabo said. “We’d like you to just walk in the office and chat with us.”

“Whether it’s getting help with a resume or seeing what job opportunities are out there, the co-op experience will help you get a job down the line,” she said.

The Cooperative Education Internship Center is located at 1045 Ninth St., which is in the Ninth St. Park. The phone number is 303-556-3290.