Students learn professional skills from internship fair

Outside of Starbucks in the Indiana Memorial Union, students walk to Alumni Hall clutching their resumes, as they shed their backpacks and books for nametags. Wearing slinky black heels, a stylish skirt and neatly applied makeup, senior psychology major Nicole Boyle was one of the many students who attended Thursday's internship fair, hosted by the Career Development Center. \nThe fair gave students the opportunity to meet recruiters from 63 organizations, ranging from AT&T and CBS News to the Department of Defense, General Motors and Walgreens. Several organizations remained on campus Friday for interviews. \nBoyle, who met with recruiters from U.S. Army Health Care, the Marine Corps, the Washington Leadership Program and the IUB Upward Bound Project, said the fair was a good opportunity to "see what her options were" and not necessarily to get an internship.\n"It's good to have experience in an interview-type setting," Boyle said. \n"When students do the research prior to coming to the internship fair," that's what makes then stand out, explained Kim Towse, senior manager of college recruiting for Gap Inc.\nThe 10-week, paid summer internship at Gap Inc. in San Francisco required that students be juniors "who have a passion for working in retail." But Towse explained recruiters are also looking for strong leaders who perform well academically and have good communication skills.\nShe said she only goes to about six different schools around the country. IU is a "key school," she said, because it has "brought in a lot of great hires for internships and jobs."\nRecruiter Sergeant First Class Woa Townsend for US Army Health Care agreed that higher grades and a professional attitude were just as important as doing the research.\n"A lot of (students) see 'army' and assume we are the same recruiters that chased you around in high school," he said.\nAs a health care recruiter, Townsend said he was mostly interested in students who plan to go into the medical field. While the army does offer some well-paid internships, mostly for students about to graduate, he said they were mainly trying to get the word out about other careers in the military and the scholarships available. In addition to doctors and nurses, the army needs dieticians, occupational therapists and other health care professionals.