Internships are an essential part of a student’s education and preparation for the workforce, providing experiential learning beyond the classroom. Ray Rast, College of Arts and Sciences’ Interim Internship Coordinator, explains, “Our goal is to move toward a closer integration of our students’ off-campus learning (through internships) and our own on-campus teaching.”
Science departments are eager to provide internship opportunities for students, as hands-on learning is crucial for gaining skills necessary for careers in medicine, research, and more. For example, the Biology Department has begun offering a new internship through the Inland Northwest Blood Center. This position gives undergraduates the opportunity to become familiar with laboratory medicine, in particular the support of transfusion and transplantation.
This year, two students interned at the INWBC with Human Leukocyte Antigen Laboratory Director Ellen Klohe, who received her undergraduate degree from Gonzaga. Klohe has recognized the growing need for immunologists and wants to provide opportunities that expose students to this career path, as the profession of laboratory technologists is projected to grow 14% by 2024. This internship is possible thanks to a donation by the Blood Center Foundation, which seeks to train and support medical professionals in order to facilitate superior care for all patients.
Senior journalism major Josh Horton poses in front of the Spokesman-Review, where his summer internship includes covering the Spokane Indians baseball team
Departments across the College are developing internships tailored to the contemporary work environment. History, for example, now offers the “Telling Stories in the Digital Age” internship, which involves bringing on-campus archives together for digital storytelling, preservation, and exhibition. In partnership with the Providence Center of Faith and Healing at Sacred Heart Medical Center, the Philosophy Department offers its own Health Care Ethics Internship, for which students assist in developing monthly ethics programming for Sacred Heart residents, nurses, and staff.
Every CAS department offers a dedicated course code for internships. To earn course credit, a student must meet regularly with a faculty advisor and complete other requirements. Students interested in learning more about internships can do so through Zagtrax— Gonzaga’s online career management system—or by talking to a professor.