Stony Brook University students conducting off-campus internships have tremendous opportunities to launch careers in their chosen fields upon graduation. Such is the case with Janice Tsang, a December 2012 graduate with a BS in business management, who conducted her internship as a financial reporting and analysis intern with Duke Energy Corporation, a Fortune 250 company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. As a result of this internship, Tsang has been offered a job with a Big Four public accounting firm. For her achievements, she has also been recognized by the Stony Brook University Career Center and the Stony Brook Alumni Association as the winner of the Off-Campus Internship Contest.
The Off-Campus Internship Contest is a competition designed to acknowledge and identify students participating in career-related, off-campus internships for conducting exceptional work and achieving measurable accomplishments. The top three winners receive a cash prize from the Alumni Association: $250 for first, $150 for second and $100 for third.
“Internships are incredibly valuable to students,” said Sherry K. Sussman, MD, ‘ 91, ’95, president of the Stony Brook Alumni Association. “And those students who fully appreciate that value and offer their best efforts to the employer reflect well on Stony Brook and deserve to be rewarded.”
Tsang spent her Duke Energy internship preparing SEC reports and providing expenditure reports for the controller and chief financial officer. “Being able to see the work I have done throughout the summer come into play was definitely an eye-opener for me,” she said.
Sarah Kaufmann, director of consolidation at Duke Energy, described Tsang as a detail-oriented, focused worker who asked good questions and had a positive attitude. Her work ethic ensured the “Corporate Reporting team met the second quarter reporting deadline and improved the quality of the report filed,” wrote Kaufmann. As a result of this internship, Tsang has secured a full-time position with PricewaterhouseCoopers beginning in July 2013.
“The Career Center honors exploration and boldness,” said Alfreda James, assistant director, graduate student and post doc career services at the Career Center. “By taking themselves off campus and out of the classroom, these students toss out routines, learn to adapt to new settings and re-evaluate their concepts of professionalism. They have taken charge of projects and developed a sense of high-level personal accountability for positive outcomes.”
Elaina Anderson, a senior seeking a BE in engineering sciences with a minor in business management, took second place in the internship contest. She conducted her internship in the Radiation Detection and Nuclear Science group at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, where she was taught the fundamentals of nuclear science and granted access to state-of-the-art radiation detectors.
Misha Mehta, a senior seeking a BA in psychology, finished third in the internship contest. She worked as an editorial intern for the Art and Science of Somatic Praxis, a journal of the U.S. Association for Body Psychotherapy, which is a science and art that has developed during the past 75 years from the results of research in biology, anthropology, proxemics, ethology, neurophysiology, developmental psychology, neonatology, perinatal studies and other disciplines.
“This contest gives us an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate student off-campus internship experiences,” said Nikki Barnett, senior career counselor at the Career Center. “Often, students don’t realize their peers are applying for and engaging in off-campus, career-related experiences; by tracking these experiences we are increasing opportunities for Stony Brook students and showcasing their outstanding achievements.”
Applications are now being accepted for the Spring 2013 Off-Campus Internship Contest. The deadline is April 15, 2013. More information can be found at The Internship Contest.
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