Graduating College Students Need Edge To Get Jobs

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- By summer 2014, more than 1.5 million students in America will graduate from college and look for ways to enter the work force. 

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140226/DC70970)

As Reuters reported about 2013 college graduates, more than 40 percent were underemployed or seeking additional training to get on a career path.  Not to mention the piles of debt that students couldn't begin to pay. 

As Jacquelyn Smith, Forbes career reporter wrote in this article, "[Internships] may be the easiest way to secure a full time gig, as 69 percent of companies with 100 or more employees offered full-time jobs to their interns in 2012…."

Smith points out that internships have become "the new interview" for students and employers alike. 

In light of this information, rather than just "how do I get a job?", step one for undergraduate students should be "how do I get an internship?"

For the past 47 years, educational nonprofit The Fund for American Studies has helped bring thousands of outstanding college students to Washington through its DC Internships program. Students intern at top-name media outlets, political offices, NGOs, businesses and think tanks in the greater Washington, D.C. area.

One student currently benefiting from his DC Internship experience is SUNY Purchase junior Michael Sorge.

Sorge is interning at the Washington Bureau of Time Warner Cable through the DC Internships program, and attended President Obama's State of the Union address on Jan. 28 at the U.S. Capitol. 

"Being at State of the Union cemented that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life," Sorge said. "It was definitely a cool experience."

Sorge was in the thick of the press corps throughout the entire day of the event. He assisted his colleagues with the pre-speech interviews and even got to draft interview questions for a senator.

Sorge said his internship has allowed him to be immersed in the world of journalism, the profession he knows he will keep chasing in the future. "My favorite thing is to be here, close to doing what I want to do," he said.

Like Sorge, many of our country's future leaders dream of getting closer to the action in our nation's capital and the DC Internships program can help.

The Fund for American Studies' DC Internships program offers an all-inclusive package for students, providing them with a full-time internship, furnished housing in the heart of D.C. on the George Washington University campus, the opportunity to earn college credit for their internship and courses taught by top professors. 

The program subsidizes the cost for students to live and work in D.C. with an extensive scholarship program – the largest scholarship program of its kind in the Washington, D.C. area. Each summer, DC Internships gives away more than $1 million in scholarships to bring deserving students to D.C. that wouldn't be able to otherwise.  Funding for Summer 2014 is still available for qualified students.

For more information and to have an internship like Michael Sorge, visit www.DCInternships.org. The final deadline to apply is March 18, 2014.

The Fund for American Studies is an educational nonprofit that seeks to create a brighter, more prosperous future by preparing young people for leadership, teaching them the ideas of freedom and a free-market economy. Founded in 1967, TFAS organizes programs in the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America. For more information on programs, please visit www.DCInternships.org.

SOURCE The Fund for American Studies