How to Recruit SSU Students as Interns & for CIP

Read the UPDATED version of this post.

by Merith Weisman

In another blog post, we discuss the differences between internships and the Community Involvement Program (CIP). This post is about how community organizations can recruit SSU students to serve in these capacities.

If your community organization is interested in recruiting an intern or CIP student, more is better. Here are some ideas:
1) Send the CCE your position descriptions at cce@sonoma.edu. We will forward them on to appropriate faculty who can distribute them to their students. Please remember to include your mission statement and contact information, your expactations of the student, a title (what the student will be doing, not “Intern”) and a benefits section. This section can say “Although this position is unpaid, you will learn/meet/etc. x,y,z…this will save you a lot of time fielding student questions about pay. And if it is unpaid, consider collaborating with the Sonoma County Time Exchange and compensating with Time Dollars (more about that here).
2) Send your position descriptions to faculty you know at SSU, regardless of department. You can request that they send it along to their colleagues as well.
3) Post your internships to on the Career Services Seawolf Jobs site. Posting is free and students log on directly to the site to search for internships. It also provides a good outline for a position decription.
4) Plan to attend and recruit at the 2012 Service & Internship Fair date TBD. This way you will be able to connect directly with students.
5) Do you have SSU interns now?  Ask them to help you with your recruitment.  Perhaps they have a friend who would be a great match.  You can even consider adding “replace yourself” to the position decription.
6)If you haven’t done so already, post positions to your website, post the link on Facebook, etc. Ask current and past students to link to it and share it, etc.
7) Have other ideas to share? Post them here in the comments section of the blog!