After her freshman year, with a traditional internship already under her belt, Samantha Block wanted to try something new, in a big city.
She decided to pursue an internship through Dream Careers, a company that lets students pay to get internships in the United States and abroad.
Before the now 20-year-old public relations sophomore started the internship, she went through a preparation phase that included resume building, preparing for interviews and selecting her program.
“They helped me so much with my resume that it felt like I was being babied the whole way,” she said.
She ended up at a small public relations firm in New York during summer 2011.
While these experiences help a student’s job prospects, they come at a cost that may be too much for some students’ bank accounts.
Dream Careers charges students $6,750 to $10,499 for the training process and internship, according to its website.
Chris Duggan, executive director of Dream Careers, refused to say how much of that cost is returned as profit to companies receiving interns.
Block said she thought the internship was worth the cost because she had a hands-on experience with a small firm.
“It was 100 percent worth the cost — I had a friend who interned at Vogue in New York during the summer and her costs ended up being more than mine,” she said.
Ideally, students should be paid, said Joe Rojo, associate director for international programs at the Warrington College of Business. At the same time, students shouldn’t look at the internships as just work — they should see it as an academic exponent.
“Sometimes it’s difficult to get an internship for a large banking or financial firm in Florida, which makes international internships an attractive alternative,” Rojo said. “On other occasions, students think it’s neat to go abroad instead of taking an internship for Johnson & Johnson or Target in a small town.”
Although Block had an internship in public relations through Dream Careers, the College of Journalism and Communications doesn’t promote internship companies.
Charles Harris, director of Knight division scholarships and career services for the college, said the problem with internship businesses is that they charge a profit margin in addition to the expenses a student normally incurs in an internship.
The college also questions the legitimacy of the businesses.
UF journalism and communications students usually get internships with legitimate news organizations such as ABC and the Washington Post, he said. Alumni have worked as politics writers in Washington, D.C., for example.
Harris said internships should be meaningful, and students should learn valuable skills and be supervised by professionals. There should be no slacking.
“We don’t want students to go for the easy one with the high cost.”
