When I started my internship at the Columbus Chamber I had one goal in mind; work so hard that they offer me a full-time job.

My marketing internship began in January 2011 and in the five months of working I grew to love the Chamber, its mission and its employees. With graduation right around the corner, what better way to prepare myself for the “real world” than work near full-time hours at an organization that never sleeps?

A successful internship, in my opinion, is one that challenges and utilizes an intern and continuously involves the intern in the organization’s operations. The Columbus Chamber did that and more.

The Chamber helped me develop a feel for how to work and operate in the professional world. My day-to-day tasks and side projects truly made me feel like another Chamber employee, and not just an intern. My supervisors trusted me with big projects, such as compiling content for an advertorial in C.E.O. Magazine, and appreciated my opinion. They made me feel like a valuable part of the team.

The Chamber not only taught me professional skills but also helped me on a personal level. I have always wanted to live in Columbus but never really knew why. Through my internship I learned all about Columbus, its assets and its award-winning rankings. The Chamber confirmed my belief of wanting to live in Columbus in the future.

When my internship ended, there were no open positions in the marketing department. I was very disappointed, but I realized that working toward the goal of getting a job with the Chamber is what made the internship successful. I was always hungry for more work and never afraid to take a stab at something I hadn’t done before. Having this attitude allowed me to show my supervisors what I was capable of which then increased my range of responsibilities. Thanks to my internship experience I feel more confident in myself, my skills and my plans for the future. I am ready for the “real world.”

If I could offer any advice to employers who hire interns it would be to use the heck out of them. An internship doesn’t have to stay tailored to the job description that he or she applied for. Make an intern’s time worthwhile. Challenging an intern can result in growth for your intern and success for your organization.

As for interns, make goals at the beginning of the internship. Don’t be afraid to ask questions or take on additional responsibility. Your internship should benefit you just as much as your work benefits an organization.

Britany Byers is a former intern at the Columbus Chamber. Britany is a 2011 graduate of Otterbein University and currently works fulltime as a reporter for This Week Community Newspapers. Check out more of her musings at BritanyAByers.wordpress.com and follow @BritanyByers.

As my time with the Columbus Chamber is winding down I have started to reflect on my entire experience. From my very first day with the Chamber up through now I have seen myself grow as a writer as well as gain some valuable tips and experience in a business environment.

I appreciate the Chamber for giving me the opportunity to get involved this quarter. I enjoyed the opportunity to share my individual experiences with our community. Through my work I have been able to share my views and experiences on a variety of topics that could potentially impact other students and recent graduates. Through member testimonials and blog entries I’ve shared my initial expectations of joining the Chamber, interviewed current Chamber members, talked about my views of the city of Columbus, and was even able to attend the Chamber’s Annual Meeting. This potential impact on our community was one of the main reasons why I wanted to get involved with the Chamber.

I’ve learned several things through my time with the Chamber that will benefit my writing long term. The differences between academic writing and professional writing have become a lot clearer for me. I now realize professional writing has a more direct and straightforward style than normal academic writing. Through my blog entries I’ve learned the importance of keeping ideas short and to the point in order to make things easier on readers. 

My time at the Chamber also gave me the chance to get involved in an organization that strives to bring success to the entire Columbus Region. I was immediately welcomed and felt part of the team from the very beginning.  Early on I witnessed how the Chamber staff interacted with each other and how that benefits Chamber members and the local community. I witnessed big changes at the Chamber ranging from an office renovation to the announcement of a new President. Despite the changes things went smoothly and never affected any work.  The staff is a perfect example of a team working towards the same common goal. I received input and advice on my writing that came from multiple perspectives. With different people providing feedback on my writing I had new ideas to work with that ultimately benefitted my final drafts.

At the beginning of the quarter I was unsure of what to expect from working with the Chamber.  Now I am glad this opportunity came about. The benefits of my first writing internship will continue to help me in school as well as when I transition to my future career.

About Me:  I’m a lifelong Ohioan, born and raised in Canton, Ohio. Currently I am a senior at The Ohio State University, majoring in English. I will be graduating in June and plan on attending Law School in the fall.

Simply put, I’ve always looked at the city of Columbus as a place full of opportunities.

Columbus offers me the chance to earn a top notch education at one of the many area colleges or universities; Columbus is home to many of my favorite sports teams and entertainment venues. Essentially for me, Columbus is the center of it all.

Literally situated in the center of the state, Columbus is within manageable driving distances from almost any other place in Ohio. This centralized location is one of the reasons why I chose to come to Ohio State. Personally, I like the independence of being far enough away from home, while still having the option and benefits of being able to drive home whenever I want to. Columbus provides that perfect distance away from home.

Another reason why I really enjoy going to school in the area is the unique combination of campus life and a big city feel. This unique blend provides the best of both worlds. I have been able to experience the traditional campus lifestyle, featuring on-campus housing, green space, and recreational facilities, all the while being minutes away from the excitement that downtown Columbus brings. By having top-notch facilities on campus, as well as throughout the surrounding area, has really helped enhance my college experience. This combination always leaves me with tons of options and events whether on campus or minutes away in downtown.

            Columbus is extremely different than my hometown of Canton, Ohio and has provided me with a nice change of scenery. Being from a suburban neighborhood outside of Canton, I was rarely able to experience skyscrapers or the fast paced energy that a big city offers. Columbus has plenty of both.  One of my favorite places in Columbus is Huntington Park, home of the Columbus Clippers. I’ve been to several games and haven’t found a bad seat in the ballpark. My favorite places to sit are along the 1^st and 3^rd baselines that look out toward the Columbus skyline. The location of the ballpark adds to the atmosphere. 

The student newspaper at Ohio State, The Lantern, recently pointed out that more and more students are choosing to stay in the area. My experiences the last four years have helped me understand why. In my opinion, there are plenty of reasons to explain this increase in students staying in the area. Columbus is one of the fastest growing cities in the Midwest, but it still has a small city feel to it. Driving through downtown, you don’t get the intimidation factors that are present in other major U.S. cities. Along with this feeling of accessibility, resources such as,  www.LiveWorkPlayColumbus.com (produced by the Columbus Chamber) do an excellent job of showcasing the benefits of living in Columbus to students and outsiders. These sites have really piqued my interests by highlighting the main (and many) attractions of the region. Over time I have realized most of the amenities that other major U.S. cities offer are available right here in Columbus. Professional sports teams, historical sites, major shopping/entertainment centers, and lots of parks space are located here. Once I began to appreciate these elements, I began to realize the benefits of calling this area my home.

Now as I’ve lived in the area for the last four years, my view of the city of Columbus hasn’t changed. I still see it as the center of everything, and full of opportunities.

 About Me:  I’m a lifelong Ohioan, born and raised in Canton, Ohio. Currently I am a senior at The Ohio State University, majoring in English. I will be graduating in June and plan on attending Law School in the fall.

Experience is a word most college students and young adults have heard quite a bit. Growing up and throughout high school we were always told about the “college experience,” once in college, we were told our resumes needed more “volunteer or work experience,” and now as graduation is right around the corner, upcoming job interviews have us worried that we just flat out “lack experience.”

I wanted to work with the Columbus Chamber to gain this much needed, valuable experience that will be beneficial me when I eventually head out into the work world. Experience can be broken down into tangible and intangible skills that I hope to gain as a result of working at the Chamber.

When offered the opportunity to work with the Chamber, I immediately jumped at the idea of being able to continue to learn and interact with businesses and local organizations. I’ve been going to school and living in the Columbus Region for the last four years. Clippers’ games at Huntington Park, Blue Jackets’ games at Nationwide Arena, movies at the Arena Grand Movie Theater, lunches in the Short North and trips to Goodale Park have helped introduced me to the area. At the same time, I am extremely excited to help encourage recent graduates and young professionals to stay in the region and help the city continue to progress economically.

Interactions with recent graduates and other members of the community are another reason for my Chamber involvement. Whether it is co-workers or individuals from local organizations and businesses, I am intrigued at the opportunity to interact with people from differing backgrounds and experience levels. These interactions will provide me with additional communication skills that are different from my typical day to day interactions with classmates and professors.

Having spent the last four years at The Ohio State University studying English, I believe that I have a sense of what academic writing is all about. I really want to gain a better understanding of professional or business writing. I’m interested in understanding and learning about the differences between the two different types of writing. I am looking forward to being exposed to things such as organizational newsletters, blogs, and things as simple as business emails. Being able to understand and differentiate between academic and professional writing will be a valuable tool to learn as I make the inevitable transition into the real world.

Lastly, and going along with that notion of professional writing, I am very interested in finally being able to write something that truly counts or will have an impact. Of course in the classroom my writing counts in the sense that it gets a grade, but I’m excited to start using my writing skills to influence local businesses and organizations to get involved with the chamber and offer my prospective to other area students contemplating their futures. I really want to make a positive impact on trying to keep recent graduates in the area, or attract outside businesses and organizations and show them the wonderful opportunities that the Columbus Region has to offer.

All in all the exposure to local businesses and organizations in a professional manner will provide me a wonderful opportunity to learn about new aspects to professional writing which will ultimately allow me to use my voice to benefit the region.

What are some reasons why you chose to go for that first internship opportunity? I’m guessing “gaining experience” played a pretty big role at first, like it did for me. But when looking past that, experience is just a general term; it’s really made up of skills learned, knowledge gained, and the opportunity to accomplish tasks firsthand. Developing these skills along the way will really make the internship worthwhile and leave us with “tons of experience.”

 About Me:  I’m a lifelong Ohioan, born and raised in Canton, Ohio. Currently I am a senior at The Ohio State University, majoring in English. I will be graduating in June and plan on attending Law School in the fall.

The first highlights the internship experiences of an ODU student and provides strong evidence to both students and employers of the immense value derived by students from their internship experiences. For employers, her story also reflects what an engaging and value-added internship experience should look like. For students, note her openness to a variety of tasks, assignments and responsibilities and the value and learnings derived from each.

The second is truly inspirational. It’s a story of perseverance and diligence and again, provides a great message for both students and employers. It could be said that this ODU student committed herself to the mantra of “Never give up on your dreams”. She wanted desperately to secure a highly coveted internship with one of Columbus’ premier Public Relations firms. Her efforts continued for months until finally she landed the internship; dream achieved! For students, its important to note how she went about her efforts, her level of commitment and willingness to do whatever it takes to get herself in front of persons with influence over the intern process. For employers, be excited about the example portrayed in this story of what this new generation of employees brings to the workplace and the path they will take in pursuit of their dreams and passion.

Read their stories here.

ColumbusInternships.com would like to thank Rose Shilling [shillinr@ohiodominican.edu] and Kerri Mollard [mollardk@ohiodominican.edu] for bringing both of these stories to our attention.”

As a recent startup, our company iCouponBlog.com was looking for young talent who wanted to learn about marketing on the internet. We considered hiring but had no real way to test the candidates out before hiring them on.  That’s where ColumbusInterships.com came in.

We put our internship opportunity up and within a few weeks have had three applicants.  We’ve accepted two of the three applicants and have had a great experience with both so far.  Both of the interns have been very proactive and easy to work with.  Both have also been very qualified.  One is graduated from Franklin University, and the other is getting his Master’s at OSU.

I think the main concern that any company offering an internship should consider is how the experience is going to benefit the intern.  We’ve worked hard to give the interns a variety of tasks so they’ll get a taste of multiple projects and positions.  We are also going to try to put the interns in front of clients and our vendors so the interns will get a chance to practice business communications. 

All and all, our experience with ColumbusInternships.com has been a very good one.  If you have the time to train an intern and give them a great experience, you should consider it for your company.

Bradley Spencer (http://www.bradleyspencer.com) is a Columbus-Based web designer and Search Engine Optimizer who is one of three founders of iCouponBlog.com (http://icouponblog.com).  Bradley writes on improving websites, getting more traffic to your website, and making websites easier to use.

iCouponBlog.com is a Columbus-Based and is accepting interns to help build the largest and most reliable coupon and rebate site online. With almost 3,000 coupons online after being online five months, iCouponBlog.com is poised to be a major hub for coupon searchers in the near future.

My role in my internship with TransportationMATTERS varies from day to day, which is part of why I love it. It is unique too, in the fact that I get to work from home.

TransportationMATTERS is a statewide, grassroots coalition advocating for full funding of a multi-modal transportation network in Ohio. Though I didn’t know a lot about transportation needs before I started, I was eager to learn and to see how my skills and knowledge of public relations could be applied to the TransportationMATTERS mission.

As with any communications internship, I do a lot of writing. Whether it’s a press release, a letter asking for sponsorship, or a magazine article, there is always something to be written. Event planning is another large part of what I do. I’m currently sitting on a committee that is hosting the 2010 Candidates Forum which is an event in which the Gubernatorial and Senate candidates will come to share their platforms on various issues (including transportation). As part of that committee, I am designing marketing materials and organizing the sponsorship for the event.

It’s no secret that social media is becoming a necessity in the business world. I am exploring not only how to introduce TransportationMATTERS to the social media world, but researching how to use it effectively given our audience and goals. It will ultimately be my responsibility to show the Board of directors how important social media is and the positive affects it could have on our organization.

There is also a heavy research aspect to my internship. Policies, proposals, and transportation related studies are constantly being updated and changing. Since it is literally part of the TransportationMATTERS mission to keep its members updated on what is going on in the world of transportation, I stay on top of the news and other transportation web sites to stay informed.

As a Public Relations major, I have been hearing for three years how important networking is. Even though I do my work from home, I frequently get to attend events and meetings where I meet people from organizations from all over Ohio.

I know I have a great internship because not only am I sharpening my design, event planning, writing and networking skills, but I am learning something new- all about the transportation needs in Ohio and about how government funding for transportation works!

Erica Bailey is a senior at Otterbein University.  She is majoring in Public Relations.

The Columbus Internships intern spotlights put the focus on students, their experience in the Columbus Region, what they do and how they’re involved in internships with local businesses. To submit your student story for an internship spotlight contact Alyssa Christian

It starts with the need to have some paperwork filed. Then maybe you need to have a box of envelopes stuffed and sealed.  Tasks like these often cause business owners to start to think about getting an intern.

At Portfolio Creative, we have used interns for years. We’ve found that interns are eager to gain experience in their field of interest and can also get some of the most mundane work done. As a business owner, my hourly rate is higher than the cost of an intern, but cost savings has not been the only advantage.  We’ve discovered that interns have helped us identify staffing needs within our firm.

For example, as we adapted to using interns in our business, we decided to put a person in place with a specialty we needed. In our first year, we worked with an intern who was working on a degree in public relations.  After the filing was done, she worked on PR for our company with our guidance, which was a win-win situation for all of us.  After that intern had to move on, we realized we really liked having someone do that work. It led to our discovery that we needed someone in that role at least on a part-time basis. It was an easy decision to fill the role with an employee, something that might not have happened had we not had the internship first.

While we haven’t replaced every intern with an employee, we’ve benefited from all our interns by being better able to see where our needs were. The process has also helped us write a job descriptions by starting with what the intern’s responsibilities were and building on to them to create a true job description.

Bringing on interns can be a great tool for determining growth in your business without a lot of investment, and it helps a student gain real experience. You can find interns by contacting the school of your choice or by contacting a local Chamber of Commerce.  In our town the Columbus Chamber has a fantastic internship program.  You can tap into it at http://www.columbus.org/about-columbus/find-an-internship.php

©2010 Catherine Lang-Cline, Portfolio Creative, LLC.

Catherine Lang-Cline is co-founder and owner of Portfolio Creative, a workforce innovation firm that was named the 326th fastest growing company in the U.S. by Inc. magazine in 2009.  Portfolio Creative helps companies streamline and innovate their creative work to save time, energy and money.  www.portfolioiscreative.com.

Located downtown in the Lazarus building, the Columbus Chamber has become a learning lab for two Ohio State University students, Quanice Shumpert and Cody Price. Both seniors, Quanice comes from an economic background, whereas Cody is the Chamber’s first city and regional planning intern. Both are interning in the economic development department of the Chamber, specializing in economic analysis.

Quanice’s Experience

As a Columbus Chamber Intern, I am given an insight into a whole new business world that you only learn and read about in college. My internship experience is everything I thought that it would be, and more. This experience will help me gain a better understanding of the possibilities my major in economics offers me.

So far I have sat in on major staff meetings, discussing the changes at the Chamber and the role of Columbus 2020!

My internship coordinator, Dr. Bill LaFayette, has exciting new projects for me to dig into every day. From analyzing data for quarterly reports to preparing economic/demographic assessments for new business ventures to come into Columbus, every task has a real life purpose and meaning.  I truly feel like I’m learning valuable information for my career in economics and building bridges and networking connections to last a lifetime.

Cody’s Experience

Being the Chamber’s first city and regional panning intern first came as a shock to me, because economic development is a key part in planning a successful city. When first interviewing for the position, Dr. Bill LaFayette and I hit it off for we had a similar interest in real estate. Dr. LaFayette received his Ph.D. in Real Estate from The Ohio State University, and being interested in real estate myself, I knew this would be a great fit.

When I first started working for the Chamber, I was involved in numerous data analysis projects that would analyze employment and population statistics for the Columbus Metropolitan Statistical Area. From this, we would be able to project future trends and find out “the behind-the-scenes” answers to questions such as, “why has the employment rate decreased?” Knowing how to interpret data is a vital part to most careers nowadays because computers are used to compute the data but they are not able to actually analyze the data, which is where I assist Dr. LaFayette in this process.

We have now added more exciting adventures and are currently working on an investment opportunity for the downtown Columbus area. Learning the ropes on how a project is first started to its completion is a valuable learning experience which cannot be taught inside a classroom. I am very excited to have been given this opportunity and will value this experience when I further my career after graduation in spring 2011.

Quanice Shumpert is a senior majoring in economics at The Ohio State University. She is originally from Columbus, OH.

Cody Price is a senior majoring in city and regional planning at The Ohio State University. He is originally from Marion, OH.

Many college students are motivated, excited and desire creating change and leaving their marks in life after graduation. My question is, why wait?

During my nine months as the community affairs intern with the Village of Canal Winchester, not only did I gain experiences that directly lead toward my future career path in government and public affairs, but I helped implement social media for the village’s overall communication strategy.

I worked closely with my boss in drafting a plan, and then working on explaining the benefits of having a presence on both Twitter and Facebook to village officials. We had to do some convincing and we had many obstacles to overcome, but we kept at it.

With a budget of exactly $0 to complete the project, I helped my boss with tips, suggestions and tools from various websites that I had been researching, along with creating a list of people to follow on Twitter. I actually designed the current layout on the Twitter page. What happened? The village of Canal Winchester embraced the new social media presence. Citizens now know where they can go to find answers to questions, and to share any concerns and most often, kind words about what they love about living there.

At a village council meeting, my boss and I presented the new pages to the media in attendance, along with the village officials. I was asked a few questions by reporters, and I was quoted in one publication, and had my name published in another. Having a few quotes in the paper while only being an intern is an awesome feeling.

There was a lot of work involved in the planning, researching, convincing and designing of this project and at first the project seemed overbearing. I knew going in that this project would add a lot of work on my part and it could have been easier deferring the project. When an opportunity like this comes along, however, I knew I had to take it. I believe the whole point in an internship to be challenged and to grow from the experiences; otherwise, what’s the point of having the internship?

My suggestions to you interns out there: Learn all you can about the company or organization you work for. Once you know all you can, don’t be afraid to make suggestions and use research as your source of confidence. Successfully achieving tasks is great, but if you help implement something that makes your boss’ life easier, your organization will never forget you and your hard work. Don’t just reach expectations, but become remarkable and overachieve. Leave your mark, even if you are only in college!

Steven Nyeste received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ohio Dominican University in May. He majored in public relations.

Columbus Internships intern spotlights put a focus on students, their experience, what they do and how they are involved with local businesses.