Many Virginia Tech management students would stay in the area if offered full-time jobs here. In fact, more than half the management students enrolled in an internship program this past semester would like to work for their internship employers in the New River and Roanoke valleys, said Stuart Mease, who surveyed the students in the program that he coordinates for the management department in the Pamplin College of Business.

Mease said more than 25 employers participated this spring in the program, created to provide management students opportunities for internship and work experience and to give local employers business assistance at the same time.

Interns are required to work 100 hours, attend career development seminars, complete a written assignment, and create a database of 200 personal contacts in order to receive three- academic credits for their work. Management interns have logged nearly 20,000 hours serving participating employers since the program's inception in December 2000.

The following organizations in the New River and Roanoke valleys participated in the program this spring: American Express Financial Advisors, Blacksburg Country Club, Citizens Telephone Cooperative, Clay Corner Inn, Commonwealth Builders, Comprehensive Computer Solutions, Connect Me, Cox Communications, Document Management Group, E2 Racing, Jackson Hewitt, Kaplan, Mary Kay, Inc., Merrill Lynch, Montgomery Regional Hospital, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, New Century Venture Center, Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, ProtoCorp Consultants, Pulaski County Administration, Reed Lumber, Roanoke Valley-Allegheny Regional Planning District Commission, Virginia Economic Bridge, Virginia Harvest, Virginia Tech Personnel Services, and the YMCA at Virginia Tech.

Organizations interested in participating in the program can contact Stuart Mease at (540) 231-2397 or at smease@vt.edu for more information. The program will resume in the fall 2003 semester, beginning in late August.

Share this story