Minnesota News

What is the Minnesota Association for Experiential Learning?
MAFEL is a unique regional organization and professional forum fostering the development, promotion, and supervision of internships, community service learning, and field experience learning.

What are the goals of the organization?

• To promote internships, service learning, and experiential education as a means for students to enhance connections between academic learning and the world of work and service.
• To create and strengthen partnerships between sites and education institutions.
• To advance the practice of experiential learning by addressing common problems, developing new learning models and assessment tools, promoting principles of good practice, and asserting influence as a network of education, public service, and corporate professionals.
• To serve as a resource network for sharing information and ideas, and serve as a forum for members’ professional growth and development.

http://www.macalester.edu/mafel/

Last updated 08-2011

State Website Michigan – Brenda Paine, Oakland University

Current Report

New Organization:

In June 2009, members of both the Michigan Council for Internships & Cooperative Education (MC-ICE) and Michigan Association of Colleges and Employers (Mi-ACE) voted at the joint conference to merge these long-standing state organizations into one. Members of both organizations spoke loud and clear that this was a crucial time for the State of Michigan to create a more unified front to leverage resources and respond to the changing market conditions.

In August 2009, a Consolidation Committee of volunteers was formed to help shape the future of the new state organization. The ultimate goal of this Consolidation Committee was to introduce a new state organization that would capitalize on stronger relationships between colleges, universities, and employers in the areas of internship, co-op, and employment. As a result of developing a clear and focused mission fostering collaboration between higher education and the employment sector, a new name was created. The new State of Michigan organization is called Michigan Career Educator and Employer Alliance (MCEEA).

In June 2010, the MC-ICE and Mi-ACE joint conference took place in Troy Michigan called “Change: Navigating Our Future Together”. It was at this conference that the new state organization, MCEEA, was introduced to existing members. The results of the Executive Board nominations and elections were announced and introduced at this time in preparation for the transition to the new leadership board beginning July 2010.

The current 2011/2012 president of MCEEA is Cindy Brown, Internship Initiative Project Manager, West Michigan Strategic Alliance in Grand Rapids, MI. Past president was Lisa Phillips of Macomb Community College and President Elect is Wayne Thibodeau of Oakland University.

Collaboration:

There has been a significant collaboration between MCEEA and the State Of Michigan Civil Service Commission this year resulting in combined marketing efforts, shared employer databases, and best practices all around!

The state of Michigan organized several university locations to hire over 500 state employees in the field of counseling and human services.

Statistics:

There are 184 paid members in the newly formed MCEEA including 20 employers. Efforts are underway to recruit more employers into the organization.

Annual Conference:

The 2011  MCEEA Annual Conference was held in Mt. Plesant, MI and was a huge success with over 135 participants in attendance.  The 2012 Annual Conference will be in Lansing, MI on June 11, 12, 2012.

Last updated 08-2011

• State Website

IAICE is an organization that seeks to maximize the effectiveness of internships and cooperative education for  organizations.  As a state-wide professional organization for employers and higher education, IAICE acts to promote the use of internships and co-ops throughout the State of Iowa.

The goals of IAICE are to strengthen experiential education within educational institutions, among employers of all kinds and to foster strong working relationships and the interchange of ideas with peers and constituents, around the state.

Ultimately, our collective work with students helps to: DEVELOP TOMORROW’S WORKFORCE LEADER

Last Updated 08-2011

Starting and Maintaining a Quality Internship Program, 6^th Edition, Compiled and Edited by Michael True, Messiah College

InternQube, Michael True – Online textbook for cooperative education students.

InternBridge, Richard Bottner

Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education

• See Statement on Learning and Developmental Outcomes

United States Department of Labor

Fact Sheet #71: Internship Programs Under The Fair Labor Standards Act

http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.htm

The Chronicle of Higher Education, “U.S. Labor Department Releases New Rules for ‘Educational’ Internships, by Sara Lipka, April 21, 2010

http://chronicle.com/article/US-Labor-Department-Releases/65197/

New York Times, “The Unpaid Intern Legal or Not”, by Steven Greenhouse, April 2, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/business/03intern.html?emc=eta1

Employers Internship Toolkit, www.InternInMichigan.com, Developed by the West Michigan Strategic Alliance and Detroit Regional Area Chamber of Commerce, http://www.wm-alliance.org/documents/publications/Employers_Internship_Toolkit_-_FINAL_5-29-09.pdf

Starting and Maintaining a Quality Internship Program, 6^th Edition, Compiled and Edited by Michael True, Messiah College

http://www.messiah.edu/external_programs/internship/employers/documents/Starting_And_Maintaining_A_Quality_Internship_Program.pdf

InternBridge, Richard Bottner, www.internbridge.com

United States Department of Labor

Fact Sheet #71: Internship Programs Under The Fair Labor Standards Act

http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.htm

New York Times, “The Unpaid Intern Legal or Not”, by Steven Greenhouse, April 2, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/business/03intern.html?emc=eta1

InternInMichigan, job posting site, www.InternInMichigan.com

Employers Internship Toolkit, www.InternInMichigan.com, Developed by the West Michigan Strategic Alliance and Detroit Regional Area Chamber of Commerce, http://www.wm-alliance.org/documents/publications/Employers_Internship_Toolkit_-_FINAL_5-29-09.pdf

Topic Resources (listed by date)

February, 2010 – NACE Journal, “Legal Q&A: What are some of the legal issues surrounding internships?” by George C. Hlavac, Esq. and Edward J. Easterly, Esq.

InternBridge, “Is Your Internship Program in Compliance with Federal Law?” White Paper by Richard Bottner. Topic presented at the Cooperative Education and Internship Association (CEIA) Conference, March 21-23, 2010.

www.internbridge.com

April 2 – The New York Times, “Growth of Unpaid Internships May Be Illegal” by Steven Greenhouse.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/business/03intern.html?emc=etal

April 5 / Rev. April 9 – Economic Policy Institute, “Not-So-Equal Protection, Reforming the Regulation of Student Internships” by Kathryn Anne Edwards and Alexander Hertel Fernandez.

http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/pm160/

April 21 – U.S. Department of Labor, “Fact Sheet #71: Internship Programs Under The Fair Labor Standards Act”.

http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.htm

April 21 – Chronicle of Higher Education, “U.S. Labor Department Releases New Rules for ‘Educational’

Internships” by Sara Lipka.

http://chronicle.com/article/US-Labor-Department-Releases/65197/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

April 28 – Chronicle of Higher Education, posts letter by thirteen University Presidents to the U.S. Department of Labor.

http://chronicle.com/items/biz/pdf/FINAL_US%20Department%20of%20Labor%20letter.pdf

April 29 – Chronicle of Higher Education, “Leave Internships to Us, College Leaders Tell Fed” by Sara Lipka.

http://chronicle.com/article/Leave-Internships-to-Us-Co/65326/

May 4 – InternBridge Webinar, “Paving the Way Through Paid Internships” with EPI’s Kathryn Anne Edwards and Alexander Hertel Fernandez; moderated by Richard Bottner.

www.internbridge.com

May 5 – Economic Policy Institute, “EPI Responds to University Presidents on Internship Regulations” by EPI Vice President Ross Eisenbrey. http://www.epi.org/analysis_and_opinion/entry/epi_responds_to_university_presidents_on_internship_regulations/

May 9 – Chronicle of Higher Education, “Would You Like Credit With That Internship?” by Sara Lipka. http://chronicle.com/article/Would-You-Like-Credit-With/65434/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

May 22 – Mike True’s Internship-Net Listserve releases definition of internship. Version will be submitted to the boards of the National Society for Experiential Education (NSEE) and the Cooperative Education and Internship Association (CEIA) for their support.

www.messiah.edu/internship

May 28 – InternBridge Webinar, “Paid vs. Unpaid Internships – Online Panel Discussion” with Richard Bottner, Mike True, Krissi Geary-Boehm, Kathryn Edwards, and moderator Dave Cofer.

www.internbridge.com

June 2, 2010, Law360, “Avoiding Liability for Unpaid Interns” by Mark W. Robertson and Charles J. Nerko, O’Melveny & Myers LLP.

http://www.omm.com/files/upload/RobertsonLaw360.pdf

June 10 – The Internship Institute, “Petition to Abolish Unpaid Interns” by Founder Matthew S. Zinman.

www.payinterns.com

It is already May!  For many this means graduation and the start of summer, for the Ohio Cooperative Education Association (OCEA), it means Annual Conference Season. Ohio has a robust state organization which hosts an annual spring conference and drive in workshops throughout the year.  These events are a great opportunity to network with co-op and internship professionals across the state.

This year’s conference was held during the last week of April at the Blackwell Inn on the campus of The Ohio State University.  Along with ample opportunities for networking, highlighted the State’s vision for building a competitive workforce, social networking as an educational tool, a round-table discussion, and panel discussions.

One of the true highlights of the event, for me, was the Ohio Coolest Co-ops Contest.  This is the second year OCEA has hosted this contest, and this year, we received full sponsorship from Honda of America Manufacturing and Danis Building Construction.

The contest is hosted online and eligible students from across the state are encourage to enter.  Entries consist of a 100-300 word essay and photos explaining what makes their co-op or internship experience ‘cool.’ Students enter in one of three categories:  Cool People, Perks, or Projects. Voting is then conducted through a public website. This year, we received 49 entries from 11 institutions across the state, and nearly 7000 votes were cast!

2009-2010 OCEA Coolest Co-op Winners:  (L-R) Julianna Barton, Bowling Green State University (BGSU Office of Design & Construction); Rebecca Nesbitt, University of Cincinnati (Procter & Gamble Germany); Emily Babel, The College of Mt. St. Joseph (Ideopia)
Seeing the entries displayed throughout the conference is a rewarding reminder of the true value the students see in their experiences. Also, speaking with gracious employers of the winners makes it evident that they, just as much as we educators, see the educational value of these experiences for our students.

Does your state have an association for co-op and intern professionals? These organizations can provide development and networking opportunities for professionals and students close to home and specific to the interests of your state. Check out the State Chapters page of the MCEIA Website to see the news for your state.

The more people you know, the more people you can influence, either positively or negatively. People who work at developing strong clusters of networks across a broad cross-section of interests, age groups, demographics and cultures can often wield enormous positive or negative influence. These people are often referred to as master networkers and spheres of influence.

One of the challenges in our time-poor society is that many of us can’t be bothered investing the time required to work at and create new networks. It is so much easier and a great time saver to stick to the networks that we know and feel comfortable with. Our comfort zone becomes very safe and non-threatening. However, it is also very limiting and the potential for influencing large numbers is almost nonexistent

Lessons in Influence from Master Network
Communicating and connecting

One of the greatest opportunities for influence can arise when you build a strong connection with someone who trusts you.

If you build a connection and trust with another person, it is natural for them to speak highly of you within their own networks, thereby potentially allowing you to influence total strangers, based purely on the connection you built with the original person. Picture a house being built brick by brick. Imagine trust being built in the same way – conversation by conversation, contact by contact. The more contact we make, the stronger our connection becomes.

Here are some lessons to be learned from master networkers about communication.

• Constantly work on improving your listening skills. Strong networkers look beyond the words and observe the tone, inference and body language of everyone in the group.
• Remember to use people’s names. ‘Name calling’ (using a person’s first or full name) in conversations is a very powerful tool.
• The better you listen, the better you will remember. An added bonus for having strong listening skills is that you will remember more about previous conversations you may have had with someone.
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions or clarify details. Master networkers are always ready to admit that they may not understand something.
• There is always more to know. No matter how much you know, there is always more to learn and other people have the information that you need.
• Remember that nobody is a nobody. Master networkers know that everyone is connected to other people, and that everyone is a somebody, somewhere.

Empowering others
There is a great sense of satisfaction when you have the ability to influence someone by empowering them. One of the easiest ways to empower someone else is to give them information. Information can equate to power – and the more information you have about a subject, the more powerful or influential you become.

Information is one of the major currencies of networking, and master networkers have much ‘information power’. As a rule, they are extremely well informed. They work at gaining and constantly updating their information through sources such as newspapers, books and the Internet, but also through the information that circulates through their networks.

Master networkers also know that the greatest gift you can give someone is your sole focus. Whether it is for 10 seconds or 10 minutes, if your sole focus is on that person, you will have had a quality conversation with them. Simply giving sole focus to someone is sufficient to influence and empower them, as this action is so rarely experienced in our busy society.

Master networkers watch what other successful networkers do, and then do the same. That is how they become masters at what they do. They look to people they admire and want to be like – role models – and then copy what they do, but without becoming their clones or stealing their ideas and concepts.

As role models come in many forms, I will share the traits of my current role models.

• They are passionate about the work they do.
• They believe in themselves, even when others don’t.
• Their motto is: The buck stops here … let’s fix it rather than find a scapegoat.
• They always stand by their staff, as long as they have the total truth told to them.
• They look for the good in others, even when it’s hard to find.
• They make heart-to-heart connections when they speak to you.
• They are fun to be around.
• They laugh often.
• They don’t overindulge.
• They don’t hold grudges.

In Conclusion

Master networkers influence others, both formally and informally, in matters small and large. So a smart manager or aspiring leader learns from them and works at developing strong, ethical networking skills. And remember, networking skills are a prerequisite for forming strategic alliances, which can enable you to move your organization and your career to the next level.

If you are prepared to constantly hone your networking skills, value your current and expanding networks, consider forming strategic alliances and value the worth of such activities as mastermind groups, it is inevitable that you will have as much influence as you want to have.

As Harvey Mackey says, it is not what you know, but who knows what you know. Happy networking!

Ten habits for becoming a networker of influence

Understand that networking is a life skill, not something you do only when you want something from someone else.

Practice making heart-to-heart connections with people when you communicate with them. Aim to be totally present and ‘in the moment’ at all times.

Arm yourself with business cards and a nametag when you attend a networking event.

Befriend the gatekeepers – the people who assist or sometimes protect the people you are wanting to network with (secretaries, personal assistants and so on).

Walk your talk. Directly and indirectly you will become a role model to others.

If you set out to build a strong network of people whom you admire, respect and value, the by-product will be that you will have great influence within this group. Yet if you set out to have influence without the firm foundation of a strong network of supporters you will fail and have no influence and a poor reputation.

Understanding Influence for Leaders at all Levels The Power of Networking (extract) – By Robyn Henderson

For the full article, please visit http://www.aim.com.au/Publications/bkchapters/influence_ch5.html

The MCEIA Board of Governors has spent a great deal of time and efforts in looking for ways to incorporate value add opportunities for our membership. This webinar was just one piece of the strategic initiatives that the Board has been discussing and developing over the past two years. We hope that this will be the first of many webinars for our membership.

The “Building Employer Relations” webinar focused on co-op/internship coordinators’ ability to make connections with employers and how to nurture those relations. Discussion topics focused on reflecting on time put forth in building and maintain the relationship, the balance between credibility and visibility, engaging employers with our colleges and universities, managing expectations from all constituents and troubleshooting.

As practitioners, we are often telling our students to develop and build connections with people. Network, Network, Network, we often hear ourselves saying. However, meeting people and having a relationship are two different things. Relationships take work. This can be hard given hectic schedules and the variety of directions we are pulled professionally.

In dealing with employers, we must balance a variety of areas – credibility and visibility, HR needs – cheap labor vs. student learning, and the list can go on. We also look for a balance between the needs of our constituents – employers, students and colleges/universities.

Building relationships takes time, flexibility and commitment. In our webinar, we looked at the percentages that we devote to our constituents. Most shared that students and office duties win over the time we spend working with employers. Some of our offices have a student first mentality which may put employer relations down the list of importance.

We also looked at the Sales Process Model that focuses on establishing relationships, helping define the needs of employers and solving their problem. Often, there may be some visibility issues. Do employers even know that we exist? As for credibility issues, why as educators are we the expert an employer might need? What do our organizations have to offer? What do our students have to offer?

The sales process also looks at lead generation, collection, qualification, distribution, incubation, tracking, and follow-up. Participants were asked to look at how they do this at their college or university. How do they manage these relationships within their office – what systems/processes do they have in place to track their interactions with employers? Also, why the tracking of this information is potentially needed and how can it be used in organizations?

Engagement is also a key to the relationship. This can be both passive and active. We defined active engagements as interactions on both parties and passive interaction on the side of one party. As we looked at these engagements a key point focused on making the life easier for the customer/employer.

Social media is an emerging tool that can be used for both passive and active engagement. These tools can be actively used to get our message out to the employer about our programs, our offices, and our universities.

In co-op and internships, there can often be a disconnect between expectations about the co-op or intern. Helping the employer understand realistic expectations about your campus and students as well as follow-up while the student is employed is an essential piece to the relationship building. Sometimes, we even have to see our role as the troubleshooter in creating the balance between our imperfect students and our imperfect employers.

As we begin the month of February, businesses, colleges, and students in the state of Michigan are reminded of the importance of internships. Our Governor, Jennifer Granholm, has officially named February as cooperative education and internship month. There are a few reasons internships are so important to think and talk about in Michigan and I’m sure this is true throughout the Midwest. I believe an early sign of job growth is internship growth.

Student + College + Business = Economic Growth

Everyone in the internship equation adds value to and benefits from the relationship.

Business

Business can offer perspective outside of textbooks to both colleges and students – it’s the college learning equivalent of reality TV. In return, business can bank on getting eager and interested minds to resolve problems and complete tasks at the most affordable rate they can imagine. Internships are a cost effective method for getting work done and provide a trial-run with a potential long term employee.  The average summer intern works 400 hours and costs and average of $5000. For many companies, it costs more than that to hire one full time employee.

Students

The generation that is more connected and more able to multi-task than any generation before? Of course, the technological savvy, the desire to learn, and the certainty with which they do it is an absolute draw for business. The students of today promise new and exciting movement for the future. Their take-away? Internships enhance their experience, grow their professional network, and often, lead to that all important first job.

College

Colleges are the essential linkage between business and students. You hold the key to making this equation work. Your employer partners value your knowledge of the students and helping them to find the perfect fit for their companies. Internships bring value to college campuses by adding real life experience to the classroom and improving the chances of full time placement after graduation.

Michigan is concerned about retaining its college talent after graduation and so, some amazing groups have pooled there resources to create a new website to build bridges and make the Internship equation strong for our state. It’s called InternInMichigan.com. Here’s the history. A survey sponsored jointly by the S.E. Michigan WIRED (Workforce Innovations in Regional Economic Development) and the Michigan Municipal League, sent to over 33,000 graduates of public universities in 2007, found that 46% had left the State by the Spring of 2008. The results were based on the responses of over 5,300 people, 88% of whom were Michigan natives. Funny thing is, over half of those who left Michigan also admitted they believed there were not opportunities and left the state.

This free resource is helping Michigan businesses, colleges, and students connect in ways they never dreamed. It’s one of the many creative ways Michigan is working toward growing its economy. Post your comments: What’s happening in your state?