Student Engagement and Success

My name is Anthony Austin and I am a graduate student in the college of business. I graduated from Governor’s State University on May 19th, 2018 with my Bachelor’s degree in Human Communication and I am excited about this new chapter in my life.

When I decide a career path, it is important for me to choose a career that is very diverse. I want to be versatile in regards to my education because when one door closes, another one will soon open up based on my work experience and education.

I have been a student worker in the DLMD (Digital Learning and Media Design) department since January of 2017 and I received this position as a result of a sports broadcasting internship that is now featured at the school. Prior to me doing this internship, I had no experience working a camera, but I was passionate about sports and I did a really good job during this internship.

The internship was a great experience for me and it really prepares you for the real world. I would have to say that this is a fun internship to have because you are learning while watching a live game sporting event. This internship is a lot of work, but it will be worth it in the end because you will learn so much. All of your questions will be answered by the end of the internship and you will have support from everyone working down in the department including the faculty.

There is a lot of pre-production work that go into this internship which is the biggest challenge because we have days when some of the equipment isn’t working and you can always expect to run into technical difficulties. However, everything else is a learning experience and I am grateful for taking the internship.

I found out about the internship by taking MST 2100, which is an intro to media production course offered at GSU. Although I am not a media studies major, I’ve had to luxury of working in the media department simply by being professional and exceeding my capabilities.

I am breaking barriers down in the media department because you don’t need to be a media studies major in order to do a successful job working down in the department. Every year has been a positive shift in my life as a result of me taking the internships offered a Governors State and I strongly recommend that everyone should utilize their resources to the best of their ability.

As a result of my hard work and dedication, I will be the director of the sports broadcasting internship for the 2018-2019 upcoming Volleyball and Basketball season.

I released a documentary in May 2018 of the Men’s Basketball team historic season.

The producer of the internship is Mark Kundla; and if you are interested in this internship, his email is mkundla@govst.edu.

I found my paid internship via the career services office. I received an email with the internship posting from Lanco Group of Companies and replied with my resume and cover letter. This was followed up by a phone interview then a face-to-face interview. I was fortunate enough to be able to get three credit hours for my internship. The internship professor I worked with was Mike Trendell. Some of the faculty from career services reached out to me once or twice via email to see how the internship was going and to see if they could help with anything.

The responsibilities I was tasked with started off small such as entering journal entries, working on account reconciliations, and completing ad hoc reports for the staff accountants. As I became more familiar with the company, I handled the month-close processes for three of the smaller subsidiary companies. Also, I should mention that I worked in the financial reporting department. Since Lanco has about 25 subsidiary companies, one of the biggest challenges was getting familiar with the different functions/software that some certain companies used. The part that that I most enjoyed was experiencing the month-close and having that pressure to finish on time because it was rewarding to be done and ready for the next month.

This internship gave me such valuable experience and it will give me an advantage when looking for employment in the future because it will stand out on my resume. My advice to students who are looking for or considering getting an internship is to be proactive about it, take advantage of the resources that you have, and start early. Getting an internship as a freshman or sophomore might be a little more difficult, but you can consider discovery programs offered by firms which are basically 1 to 2-week long workshops held by companies for students who are not quite ready for an internship. These are used by those companies to look at prospective accounting students and give them a chance to network with firm employees and learn about that firm. This at least gets your foot in the door and could potentially lead to internship or employment opportunities. Career services is also a great resource for getting an internship. Check your student email; they are constantly sending emails with employment postings and will even help you critique your resume/cover letter to make you stand out during the application process. Lastly, get involved in extracurricular and get involved in the profession by joining Illinois CPA Society or AICPA. These organizations have free student memberships and offer a wide variety of scholarships, employment opportunities, and more. Being a member of these will stand out on your resume.

Maira Gutierrez, a student from the first GSU freshman cohort, graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and a career goal to become a CPA and open her own accounting firm one day. During her senior year she found an internship through the Mary T. Washington Internship Preparation Program. This opportunity was an all-expenses paid internship, hosted by The Illinois CPA Society. The program launches African American and other racial/ethnic minority college students into the accounting profession with access to training, resources, and mentors. At the end of the program, accounting firms interview the students for a variety of paid internships that could lead to full-time jobs. Maira received course credit for her internship experience and Professor Alice Keane was very helpful in guiding her throughout the internship process.

Maira’s primary duties and responsibilities included assisting in the preparation for weekly DI files and slides for management review, participating in the 2019 Plan, cost change, and standard setting process. Additionally, she worked on a specialty project; Integrity of SAP product hierarchy.

Maira believes this internship experience helped to prepare her for her career goals. It helped her realize that “people you work for want you to succeed and if you need help there is always someone you can go to for help.” Her advice to students is to network. “You never know what type of advice or information you can get from someone by just talking to them. You can also gain inspiration, and opportunities you would have never known about and potential job offers.”