ISU president asks for money for internship program
Idaho State University President Arthur Vailas is asking the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee for $1.7 million for the university’s Career Path Internship program.
The CPI program provides work for students in their field while they’re still going to school. It started out five years ago with students not really knowing about it until faculty or staff brought it to their attention.
“The CPI program is vital to our students. It’s an opportunity to gain real-world work experience in their field of study and earn a paycheck while attending ISU,” said Vailas.
Students work through their major department to find out if any positions are available or needed in the department. The department then contacts the CPI program if it doesn’t have the funds. The CPI program will then pay the student to work in the department.
Hours vary and so does pay, based on what degree you’re working on. Coordinators say they hear a lot of positive feedback from the students. Now there are 600 students in the program and with a funding increase, they hope to make that even more.
“The purpose of this program is to give students the opportunity to get hands-on experience in their field of study,” said Ambri Saighman, CPI program coordinator. “It’s a great resume builder and it prepares them for their career after they graduate.”
One student, Alister Tencate, said this program has helped him conduct real chemistry research, conduct presentations to fellow chemists and is giving him the opportunity to travel overseas to make connections.
“Me and another guy are going to be going to Spain and doing some collaboration with a professor at a university out there for three weeks,” Tencate said. “So that will be really interesting.”
Tencate said being a student can make it hard for an average employer to work around a class schedule, but working at the university makes for a more flexible environment.
Saighman said pay is based on a degree-seeking scale. Undergraduate students make $8 an hour, graduate students make $10 an hour and doctoral students make $12 an hour. She said that is competitive pay with other area businesses, plus students gain first-hand experience in a field of study.
“It helps them to decide if that’s what they really want to do with their life, if that’s really what they want to major in,” she said. ” And it’s here on campus, so that makes it a lot easier for them to work.”
Students need to be enrolled full-time to be eligible, though the program is also not restricted to the university campus. Businesses in the community can work with the university to help students get off-campus in a field of interest.
Vailas said the university will match the $1.7 million if it receives the money. He also is asking for $5.1 million to increase faculty and staff pay, trying to increase compensation packages and make them more competitive with national averages.
