Internships lead to rewarding careers

Internships can help put students on the fast track to finding a career they love.  Just ask Tansy Stahle, a visual communication and design student at North Central State College.  She recently had an internships at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.  As a VCMT student, she was required to find an internship to complete her degree.

“I loved it.  I was able to get out of the classroom and apply the skills that I learned,” Stahle explains.

She and three other students were chosen as a team of interns at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.  During the week they would complete office work and make graphics for social media.  “During the week we would have a list of things we needed to accomplish by a deadline.  We got a lot of real world work experience as interns at the company,” Stahle says. Then the fun would begin on the weekends when the team would take pictures at events and post across the social sites for the business.

Stahle also used her classroom experience.  “Our instructor Lynn Damberger taught us to use Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.  Those are all applications I used daily at my internship.  I also got to edit videos, which I learned how to do in the classroom as well,” Stahl says.

“My internship has prepared me in a lot of ways.  Now I know what I am capable of doing.  I feel like I have gone from a student to somebody that can do a graphic design job … like a caterpillar to a butterfly,” Stahl explains.

“I think it’s important for students to have an internship.  It has help me bridge the gap between being a student to being out in the workforce.  Now I know what to expect when I am searching for a job.”

After graduation Stahle plans to find a career in marketing or video production.  She says, “I am really just trying to put myself out there and find something new that I enjoy doing.”