Field experience means getting your feet wet and your hands dirty through internships and co-ops, research, study aboad, and service-learning. Recent grads and employers agree: there’s no better way to apply what you’re learning in class, test-drive a career, network with faculty and other experts, and build a unique resume.
Internships and co-ops
Take advantage of what a large university can offer: well-connected faculty and partnerships with a wide variety of organizations in Columbus and beyond. Companies love to hire college grads they once employeed as interns! Contact your college of interest to learn about your options.
Monica Okon takes you on a tour of her NASA internship.
Undergraduate research
If you’re interested in doing research, very few places can match Ohio State’s breadth of opportunity. In fact, more than 1,000 undergraduates receive government or industrial sponsorship to do research each year. And research isn’t just for students in the sciences. Any student at Ohio State can take advantage of our high ranking research status.
At the Denman Forum, undergraduate researchers in all fields tackle major problems.
Study abroad
Change the way you see yourself and the global community. Ohio State offers more than 100 study programs in over 40 countries. Trips are designed to meet the needs – and budgets – of student travelers. Nearly 20 percent of undergraduates have a study abroad experience before they graduate. To learn more, start with the Office of International Affairs (OIA). Or, contact your college of interest to learn more about your options.
University president E. Gordon Gee calls the passport “the driver’s license of the 21st century.” Don’t have one yet? Get a passport.
Veterinary medicine students travel to Thailand each summer to study elephant health and behavior. Thanks to Professor Nong Inpanbutr, the students get an authentic Thai experience.
Service-learning
As you help others, you help yourself: students in a service-learning course (Ohio State offers over 70 of them) work on a community project. Deepen your understanding of an issue, foster leadership skills, and get experience with problem solving in a group environment. Read about the Service-Learning Initiative.
Melissa Logue, an Ohio State academic advisor, brings students in her “Spanish in Ohio” class out into Columbus’s Latino community.
