Internship Profile: Business

Hinman and Associates

With over 8 years of administrative and human resources experience and no opportunity for advancement, Sheri Smith, McPherson, KS, realized that it was time to return to school and complete her degree. She came to McPherson College as a sophomore and in the spring, she began an internship with Hinman and Associates, a Wichita human resources consulting firm. Sheri’s goals were to reintroduce herself to the HR world, become up-to-date on regulations governing the oversight of human resources in the social services field and to network with other HR professionals to expand her general knowledge base.

Sheri’s internship with Hinman has offered her experience in Workers’ Compensation, benefits, recruiting, payroll, OSHA compliance, marketing research, data base creation as well as networking and business promotion. Sheri’s internship led to an offer of a full-time position with Hinman with advancement potential upon graduation. Sheri understands the importance of combining educational experiences with field work. Her knowledge of new textbook techniques have been challenged for their suitability in the industry through her internship. Her work experience has given her new insight to the classroom curriculum.

Internship Profile: Athletics

Cloud County Community College

Amanda LeClair, a freshman from Clyde, KS kept busy this summer exploring a career in Sports Administration as an assistant in the Athletic Director’s office at Cloud County Community College. Amanda assisted with girls and boys basketball camps, created a database for the Booster Club members and performed a variety of administrative office tasks.

“With the people that I am working with, I am establishing connections with them that will hopefully last a lifetime, one of the coaches has recommended me for a job next summer. So far the staff has not scared me away from a career in sports administration, they have only deepened my desire to continue in this field,” said Amanda

 

Internship Profile: Business Administration

While completing a project for the McPherson Industrial Development Company (MIDC), business major Jamar Turner developed a labor force profile for McPherson County. The report, which is updated every five years, displays labor statistics and information for the county as related to the state of Kansas.

Jamar described his experience as “the real thing” and noted that the pressure for accuracy is much stronger than preparing a class project. Understanding that there was a realistic use for his findings, he was committed to providing accurate details. Elements of the profile included wages, labor availability, and commuting patterns.

Jamar’s research culminated into a printed report and a formal presentation to members of the MIDC during a luncheon at the McPherson Country Club. Jamar, who aspires to attend law school, was grateful for the experience that forced him to be assertive in his approach and confident with the end result.

Internship Profile: Business

2005
Shanna Hayden graduated in 2004 with a degree in business administration. To further her marketability, she chose to return to McPherson College during the 2004-05 school year to pick up an additional major in accounting. In order to sit for her home state of Colorado’s CPA exam, Shanna needed two additional credit hours and she chose to do an internship with McPherson accounting firm, Adams, Brown, Beran and Ball so that she could not only get the credit hours but gain valuable “real life” experience.

Shanna started her internship at a critical time for accountants – tax season. Shanna was responsible for payrolls, tax deposits, year-end quarterly reports, sales and transient tax, and compilations.

“I feel that this experience has filled in some of the gaps from my classes and I am able to apply the things that I learned in class to my job. I would suggest to other accounting students to take on an internship like this to connect the classroom to the outside world. I understand that I still have a long way to go in accomplishing my goal of becoming a C.P.A., but I feel that with each new day, I grow closer to the final result,” Shanna said.

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2004
One of Shanna Hayden's first duties as an internal auditor at the National Bank of Andover was to participate in an employee training session dealing with compliance issues. She quickly realized there was much to learn about the world of finance, including many items that could never be addressed in the classroom setting.

Shanna gained valuable experience while conducting a wide variety of audits for the bank. She assisted with compiling board reports and ran proofs to check for teller worker errors. Shanna was also a member of the bank conversion team, which was responsible for planning and implementing updated bank procedures.

Shanna enjoyed learning more about the dynamics of management by observing the interaction between supervisors and employees. Her experience was insightful as she considers a career in corporate management.