Engaging in community service provides a great opportunity to connect with and better appreciate the community. Let’s face it; it’s likely that both you and your employer view your summer internship as an opportunity to test run the possibility of full-time employment. The summer internship also serves as a great opportunity to test-run the community you may find yourself living in upon graduation. If you’re new to your internships’ host city, merely commuting to work each day and spending your weekends socializing with friends will do little to feed the connection to your temporary home. Take advantage of this 10-12 week “house-hunting trip” and see what your summer home has to offer beyond the 9-5.

Community services provides a great opportunity to develop and enhance critical workplace skills. Now, are you going to fill a large void in your professional development continuum simply by taking part in a 2-hour park clean-up some Saturday this summer? No, you won’t! But, if you take the lead in planning such an event and say invest 6-8 weeks in the process, you might just walk away having developed and/or enhanced skills that are absolutely transferable to the workplace. Ever heard of something called project management? If you take on the challenge of pulling together a community-based service project requiring collaboration with a local agency, recruit and manage the volunteers, promote and communicate the event, monitor the completion of critical tasks leading up to the event…I think you get the point. Not only does community service leave you with a sense of having “done good” but you can also grow professionally if you pursue the opportunity with that intent.

Team-based community service projects offer a positive and impactful opportunity to have FUN and socialize. Just so you don’t think I’m some kind of old curmudgeon that only ever thinks about new and innovative ways for young people to grow professionally (OK, that actually is who I am), I wanted to be sure to mention the “F” word. Yes, contributing your time and talents to the community can be FUN. It can be rewarding and humbling all at the same time. I’m all about opportunities to “party with a purpose”. Your summer internship is about a lot of things, but coming from someone that was lucky enough to have a formal internship during every summer of their undergraduate studies, be sure to make time to have fun. After all, it’s your summer. The 10-12 weeks every year where you get a break from your studies and transition from formal to experiential learning and if this article had any influence on you, you can add service learning to the mix as well.

Dave Cofer is President/CEO of Cofer Consulting Solutions, a firm specializing in attracting, developing and retaining young professionals. His Total Talent Development (T2D℠) model integrates 4 independent elements of learning (formal, informal, experiential and serving learning) into a single model ensuring a comprehensive approach to entry talent development. E-mail Dave at David.Cofer@CoferConsulting.com. To learn more about Cofer Consulting Solutions, visit www.coferconsulting.com.

At the Chamber, we’re committed to connecting students with the business community through this site. And we’re committed to starting you, as an employer, off on the right foot – that’s why we’re hosting a training session with a panel of experts. Here’s the info:

When: Monday, May 5 – from 3 pm to 4:30 pm

Where: Columbus State Community College’s Center for Workforce Development

Who: Businesses who have never hosted an intern or are looking to increase the effectiveness of their current program

What: A panel discussion with representatives from the higher-education and business communities and a demonstration of the rest of this site. Those who attend the session will also have the opportunity to upload their internship opportunity on-site.

How to register: Visit www.columbus.org and click on “How to Host an Intern” in the sidebar.

Have questions before May 5? Post them in the comments section below. We’ll make sure they are answered during the panel discussion or as a follow-up post on this blog.