Real World Learning: Wear the (Intern) Hat!

What's the hardest thing to do when part of a sophomore class is an internship? Getting started! One third of the credit hours of the Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies class (35 hours of internship service) is earned by actually working in whatever field most closely or conveniently matches a student's interests - preferably not on Coker's campus. If you stay on campus, you are missing some of the funnest "real-world" aspects, and unless you want some very specific skills in Marketing and Communications or IT work, the convenience and safety of on-campus work are probably not worth it.
The internship is set up through our Office of Career Development, which has contact info for a long list of local businesses and organizations, such as the Chamber of Commerce and City Hall, Parks and Recreation, and many downtown stores, offices, and services.

Then: get ready! You need a resume and a general idea of what you want to learn about or what kind of work environment you want to experience. Think about what you can contribute to the organization, as well: tech skills? knowledge? ideas? Research the place you are interested in.
The Office of Career Development can help you set up an interview with the business or organization, or help you with contact info so you can get in touch with them yourself. Sometimes you have to be persistent!
Once you get started, be ready to be engaged. Last year, my students had all sorts of reports to share. A student whose interdisciplinary fields were writing and history put in his hours at the Hartsville Museum and walked all over downtown Hartsville to make an inventory of businesses and buildings one day - another day he helped curate an exhibit and organized artifacts. In a small business, you may be able to put your IT knowledge to work to tweak a router setup and spend hours chatting about entrepreneur challenges with the owner. And, if you are working for the City of Hartsville, one evening you may be left in charge of a busy downtown music event, directing traffic and vendors. "I'll be back in an hour - meanwhile, you wear the hat," says the City Manager, and then that's what you do: wear the hat!
The student who was left in charge that fall evening at the downtown Hartsville Block Party, wearing the hat, was terrified for one hot minute, but then he rose to the occasion - traffic was directed to parking, vendors were shown how to connect their power cables, and the music could start up. It was a lovely evening, and to this intern, the college campus, and how he thought about learning, appeared suddenly much larger. Well, perhaps not that much larger - it's still Hartsville.

Sending second-year students out in the community takes some faith, patience, and persistence - there are moments of panic, moments of boredom, transport crises, personal crises; it's sort of like sending pretty young people out to actually work. But there are also some real insights about how much creativity, flexibility, skills, and - yes: interdisciplinary thinking! - are required for a job well done. We can (and do) spend many hours reading a text book and talking about the implications of ideas, policies, and cross-disciplinary efforts, but at the end of the semester, the internship is probably the one most memorable part of the course. Totally worth the hassle.