Coming into college you have to make a decision with what you want to do with your life. Whether it is move far away from home, or what you want to major in – decisions are out there, waiting to be made.

But regardless of the decision that you make you have to be ready to adapt and try new things that will help you in the “real world” after college.

Many students here at American International College are required to participate in an internship for course credits.

Students have the ability to gain experience in a field that will hopefully be eye opening and intriguing for them to continue work after school.

A lot of local businesses and offices on campus provide work for these students to do so that it is convenient for them to achieve this requirement while maintaining their work load on campus.

Will Johnson is a senior at AIC majoring in Criminal Justice. He just began an internship this spring semester at the Probation Department-District Court of Massachusetts in Springfield.

Throughout college some people struggle with trying to see the importance of why they are learning the things that they are learning. Johnson said that this process has allowed him to see the importance of school work and to use the things that he learned in classes as resources for this internship.

“This internship really helps to show how the things we learn in class are applied in the real-world workplace,” Johnson said.

“It’s hard to overlook that the things we learn are important and will be applied in our careers but doing this internship has opened my eyes to the connections between the classroom and the workplace,” he added.

Junior Georgia Barnes is a junior Criminal Justice and Psychology major.

Barnes just began the process of looking for internships. She expressed that she wanted to keep her options open so when it became time for her to choose an internship she would be able to choose the best fit for her.

“Searching for an internship was somewhat struggling due to accessibility,” she said.

“I found it hard to become aware of internship opportunities that would be applicable to both me as a student and a person, luckily I had help from an outside source (Pete) who was aware of both what I was studying and what I was interested it, who was able to refer me to the internship that I now have,” she noted.

Barnes stated that having connections to businesses was very beneficial when it came time to look for internships. When Barnes showed up to the places she applied for interviews it also allowed a talking point to ease the conversation.

American International College has allowed students to be able to expend their knowledge outside of their courses and have hands on learning activities regardless of their major.  While it is not always a requirement to have an internship to graduate AIC offers shadowing experiences for certain majors at the school.

Preparing for the real world can be intimidating and scary but when you have experiences and networking opportunities your become adapted to the life style and the work that you will be doing.

Don’t be afraid to start your life the right people are out there to help you.