Profession-based learning internships preparing students for future careers

What began as an internship mapping the trees that set Northwest Missouri State University’s campus apart from its peers has flourished into a career path for student Gabe Goodlet.

Goodlet, a senior geography and geographic information science major from Dearborn, Missouri, was one of four students afforded profession-based learning (PBL) internships this fall through Northwest Career Services.

The internships provide valuable hands-on experiences to students who may have little access to resources and to departments that may need assistance with projects to benefit Northwest. Students can participate in their internships for up to two semesters and work up to 150 hours of work during the course of a semester.

Gabe Goodlet worked a PBL internship this fall that involved surveying the Missouri Arboretum. (Photo by Lilly Cook/Northwest Missouri State University)

Libby Cruickshank is a PBL intern in the library at Horace Mann Laboratory School. (Photo by Lilly Cook/Northwest Missouri State University)

Goodlet was hired as a PBL intern this fall to update surveys of the Missouri Arboretum on the Northwest campus. Using GPS equipment, he surveyed trees and collected location data. He also took photos and notes of his observations for updates to a database and campus maps.

He says his Northwest coursework has prepared him well for the internship.

“A lot of what I’ve learned in class deals with spatial reasoning and spatial analysis, and I’ve applied that in the field – a specifically with the ways that I can look at and perform analysis on trees,” Goodlet said.

Since Goodlet is graduating this month, he is taking inspiration from his experience with the Missouri Arboretum into his job search.

“I’ve had a lot of fun with this internship, and I’ve actually sought out jobs similar to it,” Goodlet said. “I think having this internship on campus has allowed me to put my foot in the door with these other surveying jobs. A lot of them deal with the exact same equipment I’m using right now.”

Libby Cruickshank, a sophomore elementary education major from Cameron, Missouri, is a PBL intern at Northwest's Horace Mann Laboratory School. On a weekly basis, she meets with Dr. Mary Shields, the librarian at Horace Mann, to review plans for the week and then organizes them into lesson plans. Her work with Shields is published online for other librarians to access and use in their own schools.

“When you are a student, you don’t really get to see behind the scenes of a school library,” Cruickshank said. “This internship has allowed me to grow in creativity while also gathering ideas that I could use in my future classroom. I’ve only been working for a few months, so I am excited to see what my future with this internship looks like.”

Cruickshank said participating in the internship has allowed her to become familiar with educational practices and get a head start on her career.

“I honestly don’t think this internship would be possible without the courses I’ve taken here at Northwest,” she said.

One of those courses is Introduction to Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, which Cruickshank completed last spring. In it, she learned how to analyze standards and create lessons based on those standards — knowledge that has been helpful during her internship.

“My goal for the rest of the year is to become fluent in writing lesson plans and pulling standards for them,” she said. “My classes started me on that track, but this internship is really helping me strive for that goal even further.”

Jacen Piatt, a senior computer science major and digital media minor from Country Club, Missouri, is collaborating with Dr. Rebekah Snyder, an instructor in the School of Natural Sciences, through a PBL internship. The two are working on a project to teach third through sixth graders at Horace Mann how to build their own board games.

Additionally, Anil Panday, who is pursuing a master’s degree in applied computer science at Northwest, is working in a PBL internship related to cybersecurity.