Summer internships enrich students’ education, prepare them for careers

Summer internships enrich students' education, prepare them for careers

Northwest Missouri State University students participated in a variety of internships this summer - spanning work at large corporations to service organizations - while gaining real-world experience before entering the workforce.

Career Services at Northwest recommends that all students complete at least one internship before graduating to gain professional experience and apply their knowledge outside the classroom.

"Internships are important for all majors because they allow you to integrate some information that you've learned in the classroom, some skills that you're building socially outside the classroom and work ethic," Hannah Christian, the director of Career Services, said. "You're learning processes of a specific business, so it's learning, but it's a different type of learning - and it's integrative and adds all those things together into something that's totally different than classroom or academic work."

Career Services can assist students in the internship process, from job searching to reviewing resumes and cover letters, in addition to offering a variety of networking and career exploration activities throughout the year.

Below, 10 Northwest student share their summer internship experiences.

Nora Crowley

History

Crowley, a junior from Kansas City, Missouri, participated in an internship at the Andrew County Museum in Savannah, Missouri. The museum focuses on preserving the history of Andrew County and helping visitors understand the region's rural way of life.

Crowley's duties included cataloging items and working with historical objects. She worked on several projects with the museum and even got to take charge on one of her own, titled "Mabel Dray: The Joy of Collecting."

"I'm interested in one day being a museum curator, so being able to work in collections and with museum exhibits and artifacts was really of interest to me," Crowley said. "It also said that I would be able to work with objects, because I had only had experience here at the (University) archives."

In addition to gaining hands-on experience, Crowley says the internship prepared her well for post-graduation.

"I feel like it's absolutely going to prepare me," Crowley said. "It's definitely a very good stepping stone for me to get other internships at larger museums. This internship was pretty much a crash course on everything I would love to do after graduation, how to curate in a museum."

Dylan Arends

Business technology

Arends, a senior from Marshall, Missouri, spent his summer interning at Conagra Brands in Marshall. The plant produces Banquet, Kid Cuisine, Healthy Choice and other frozen food brands.

Arends' role at the company placed him with the supply chain's management team, which has been a focus for businesses following the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the internship focused on an area apart from his major, he took his Northwest knowledge with him.

"I did learn a lot of things in my major to apply everything I learned to a real-world business," Arends said.

Arends says he also built relationships with other interns by traveling to one of Conagra's two corporate bases.

"The first and last week of my 10-week program, we went up to Omaha, and that's where Conagra's actually based out of," Arends said. "I met a whole bunch of interns that were working throughout the plants, and I got to meet with them and talk to them and have other very good experiences working with them."

In addition to his hands-on experience, he learned about the factors that go into operating a business.

"The main thing that I learned was how important communication is, especially in the business world," Arends said. "The amount of meetings I had every single day, it was amazing. "Sometimes I even asked myself, 'Wow, is this even necessary?' But it really is."

Kaelyn Simnitt

Emergency and disaster management

Simnitt, a senior from Kansas City, Missouri, spent her summer as an intern for the Clay County Emergency Management.

Simnitt found the internship through faculty she met at Missouri Hope, a field training exercise Northwest organizes for emergency and disaster management students. Her daily internship duties included helping with social media and community engagement events that included games with children and offering guides for older adults.

Simnitt also said her Northwest education and other profession-based experiences prepared her well for the internship.

"I feel like our program is really good about hands-on experience," Simnitt said. "I felt like I knew how to do all of the stuff they were having me do."

Jackson Neas

Theatre: Technical and design

Neas, a senior from Urbandale, Iowa, participated in an internship at the Texas Shakespeare Festival in Kilgore, Texas. The festival brings high-quality theatre to East Texas.

Neas was mostly involved in building sets for performances. He says the experience fueled his learning and desire to enter the career.

"It definitely gave me a lot more confidence in my skills going into this school year and then gave me a lot of assurance that 'Yes, I can do this type of thing for a career,'" Neas said.

Neas worked Tuesdays through Sundays from 9 a.m. until around 6 p.m. Although the days were long, he says his experience was rewarding.

"I think the highlight was I had a project where I had to build a bunch of platforms, and after I had some really frustrating builds to do," Neas said. "It was really nice to have something where I was like 'These are squares, I can do this.' It just gave me a lot of confidence in myself that I needed."

Ashlynn Russell

Animal science

Ashlynn Russell, a junior from Cambria, Missouri, spent the first half of her summer in Salmon, Idaho, interning with the Nelson Angus Ranch. After completing that internship, she signed up to be an intern with the Missouri State Fair.

Last year, Russell attended a networking night organized by Northwest's School of Agricultural Sciences and connected with Nelson Angus Ranch. In Idaho, she assisted with daily tasks such as cow breeding, field work and fertilization.

"I've always loved livestock," Russell said. "I've had cattle and horses my whole life. So it was very different to go out west to Idaho and see some of their techniques and the way they lived."

At the end of her six-week internship with Nelson Angus Ranch, she applied to be the animal health intern for a two-week internship with the Missouri Department of Agriculture and Missouri State Fair.

"At the state fair, I worked with all the state and regional veterinarians to help them check animals in throughout the fair and make sure everything was healthy," Russell said. "It was really fun; I really enjoyed working with them. I gained more knowledge on the animal health side of things, which is good because I can take that knowledge back home to use on my livestock."

Ethan Cooper

Wildlife ecology and conservation

Ethan Cooper, a senior from Hale, Missouri, grew up farming and began assisting in wetland management at age 15. He began working with the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) in 2022, as soon as he turned 18.

For his summer internship, he worked primarily at Fountain Grove Conservation Area, where he continued to gain experience in conservation through learning water management, checking flood gates, turning over soil and banding waterfowl.

"Banding waterfowl is my most enjoyable thing," Cooper said. "It's all research-based, and it allows us to see the flight path of the birds we're managing. It was really impactful to work on."

While working with the MDC, Cooper traveled to conservation areas across Missouri, including Fountain Grove and Bilby Ranch Conservation Area. Each day with MDC was unique, due to differences in soil types, moisture and seed beds, which required attention to detail.

The variety of field conditions like soil types, moisture and seed beds meant that no two days were the same. For Cooper, that unpredictability became part of the fun.

"It sounds weird, but some of my favorite memories are from working late," Cooper said. "I would get there at 4 p.m. and work until midnight or 1 a.m., just because it was fun. It's just what I love to do."

Harley Spurlock

Sports medicine

Harley Spurlock, a senior from Sidney, Iowa, interned at the Shenandoah Medical Center.

She began looking for an internship during the spring semester of her junior year. She reached out to numerous hospitals and physical therapy practices before ultimately deciding on Shenandoah.

"My advice to other students looking for an internship would be that it never hurts to reach out," Spurlock said. "You have to be bold and show them that this is important to you. The worst they can say is no. I probably contacted eight hospitals and a few physical therapy practices, and it never hurt to just call. Shenandoah ended up being a great place to be."

At Shenandoah, Spurlock worked with groups of kids who attended morning weight training sessions during the course of eight weeks.

"I was nervous, but they made me feel right at home the moment I stepped in the door, and I learned different perspectives on how to help these kids," Spurlock said. "I think seeing the difference between college athletes and younger kids helped to make me more well-rounded in the weight room side of athletic training."

In addition to diversifying her skill set as an athletic trainer, Spurlock says her internship helped her narrow her desired career.

"Working at Shenandoah made me realize I would rather work in the high school environment," she said. "I found that I liked kids' ability to be more coachable and absorb more than a college athlete. It was cool to be able to help shape the kids at such a young age."

Aaron Hare

Digital media and content strategy

Aaron Hare, a senior from Overland Park, Kansas, worked as a photographer for the St. Joseph Mustangs baseball organization during the summer. He captured pregame, in-game, and postgame moments at every home game, often posting content to social media in real time.

Each game, Hare worked alongside one to three other photographers from Northwest as well as other regional schools.

"I gained a lot of connections through that internship - not only professionally, but I also met a lot of fellow students who I got to network with," Hare said. "I feel like those connections are just as important as the many professional connections I made."

For a year prior to his internship, Hare worked with Bearcat athletics, photographing every home game for nearly every sport. Hare says working with the Mustangs reinforced his photography knowledge, workflow and editing style.

"[Working with the Mustangs] opened my eyes that this really is an opportunity to pursue professionally," Hare said. "It also helped me narrow down what kind of skills I need to refine at Northwest throughout my senior year to be job-ready."

Tanner Jackley

Computer science

Tanner Jackley, a senior from Blue Springs, Missouri, completed a summer internship with Basys, a payment solutions provider in Lenexa, Kansas.

Jackley began his internship by learning the code, processes and technologies essential for his role at Basys. Once trained, he worked on integrating a new business system with the Basys payment portal.

"I gained a lot of confidence in problem-solving at Basys," Jackley said. "My manager always said to fail fast and don't be scared to go out and take initiative to figure things out. I may not always know how to get to the solution, but I know that there is a way to make it happen."

Jackley also took on a few personal coding projects during his spare time. Even though his summer internship has ended, he continues with Basys in a part-time role.

"My experience showed me that this is the career path I'm wanting to take in the realm of software engineering," Jackley said. "I really like coding and using that to solve problems or to create applications."

Morgan Farris

Cellular and molecular biology

As a summer intern in the land unit with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources' Northeast Regional Office, Farris, a junior from Macon, Missouri, assisted staff with inspections and investigations. She conducted 50 inspections at a scrap tire collection center and maintained a data log during an investigation of abandoned chemical drums.

Her assistance allowed staff to focus on their roles, making areas safer and enabling organized investigations. Whether saving documents to a file, taking notes in the field or reviewing documents, Farris was eager to help.

"The most rewarding thing about working with the Northeast Regional Office was being able to form relationships with people in the office," Farris said. "I have formed several professional relationships that will benefit me in my future career. I would recommend this internship to other students because it helped me get a better idea of what I wanted to do with my future career."