Lakeland will be holding a Co-op and Internship Signing Day for students completing internships and co-ops during the spring semester. 

Mara Poullette, Assistant Director of Cooperative Education & Career Readiness, explained the reasons for holding this new event. “With our new identity as having experiential learning, we wanted to really be able to highlight it. We have students from all different majors going out on experiences. Having a platform to celebrate those exciting experiences is what we’re looking to do.” 

 “On average, we coordinate 75-80 internships a year.  With the development of Co-op, we expect to grow that number drastically,” said Jess Lambrecht, Associate Vice President of Cooperative Education & Career Readiness. 

Lambrecht explained, “The goal of the cooperative education and career programming efforts are to help students ultimately gain more valuable experiences, provide students with a competitive edge upon graduation, help them make valuable connections, and have greater financial support to reduce debt.” 

“Employers are excited to host LU students and train them in roles that could lead to careers in the Sheboygan community and beyond.  Our partners are expanding the offerings of internships and co-ops,” Lambrecht said. 

Darcyn Gross, sophomore and creative writing major, will be continuing his on-campus internship from the fall into spring semester. “I am the writing program’s social media content creator. I run the Facebook and Instagram accounts for the writing program,” said Gross.  

His supervisor is writing professor, Jodie Mortag. He needs to work 50 hours a semester to earn the credit. 

Gross is hard at work for the spring semester already. “I am working on posts right now and we will have another writing contest in the spring,” he shared. 

“It will be a relatively brief program,” Poullette said. “We will give an introduction on the purpose of it and we’ll maybe highlight some past experiences, but then ultimately the primary portion of the program is going to be focused on students getting announced and having to come sign their letter of intent, if you will.” She explained it will be similar to athletic signings where students sign to commit to play a sport at a college or university. 

 “Any student who is doing a credit bearing internship or co–op experience is invited to participate,” said Poullette.  

Poullette shared, “It is something we plan to have at the end of each semester, so we will have another one at the end of the spring semester.” She added, “I’m excited for it to be a tradition.”