Employers stressed the importance of internships during a study of the accounting curriculum to confirm it met the needs of employers by adequately preparing graduates.

“Both employers and recent graduates said that internships helped to pull all the pieces together from the academic coursework into a more coherent whole, helped provide students with a more realistic understanding of the business world and improved communications and computer skills,” said Dr. Karen Lee, UT Tyler senior lecturer in accounting and co-chair of the study.

Barbara Bass, certified public accountant with Gollob, Morgan, Peddy and Company, P.C. also served as chair of the study.

While the internship program has always been in the university’s course curriculum, Dr. Tarter wanted to make improvements and increase the emphasis placed on such an integral part of the students’ educational process.

“Given the results of the curriculum study, it made sense to reinvent and reinvigorate the program,” Dr. Lee said.

Two internship handbooks outlining new policies and procedures have been developed, one for students and one for sponsoring organizations. The handbooks, which apply to accounting, finance, management and marketing students, were developed with the help of a committee of members of the East Texas Chapter of CPAs, co-chaired by Dr. Lee and Jeff Geese, Henry and Peters, P.C.

“The committee members brought to the project the employers’ perspectives as well as experience with internships,” said Dr. Lee.

The new policies and procedures improve the quality and consistency of the internship experience, assure sufficient documentation in students’ files to support receipt of academic credit for the internship and provide both students and sponsoring organizations with the information needed to establish an internship. Providing a handbook for sponsoring organizations should also help to expand the network of organizations involved, Dr. Lee added.

“Participating in the university’s internship program was a huge benefit to me, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. As an intern, I had the opportunity to learn a lot of practical applications on the job.”

“At the same time, I didn’t feel the pressure as an intern that I might have as a full staff member. I felt free to ask questions that I might have felt I should have already known if I were full-time. This helped me to learn under what I felt were ideal conditions,” said Lisa Robinson, partner at Gollob, Morgan, Peddy & Co., P.C. and 1983 UT Tyler graduate.

Having that knowledge behind her was very helpful when she began the job search, she added.

“The internship gives you the chance to research the company from the inside and decide if you want to pursue a position. At the same time, the company gets a chance to see if they want to pursue you. My experience was so much fun I couldn’t believe that I was being paid for it,” Robinson said.

Students who want to participate in the program must be admitted to the College of Business and Technology, demonstrate self-direction and ability to work independently, complete all lower division requirements, complete a minimum of 12 hours of upper division credit in a major field and have a minimum grade point average of 3.0.