A Piece of the Action
Written by Karl Hennen
For Business students attending UH Hilo wishing to apply their education to professional settings early on, Accounting and Business internship programs are investments well-worth considering. The programs have been available since Professor Drew Martin’s career at UH Hilo started a decade prior. Even longer, the electives have offered pupils acquiring B.B.A.s learning not only far-removed from traditional lectures, but a piece of work-related action with future rewards.
Martin, like his Department colleagues, is highly supportive of the internship experiences provided to students on campus. Although the College of Business and Economics faculty have constructive differences regarding the program, he believes all are on board regarding its real-world relevance. Both the Internship in Accounting (ACC 400) and Business Internship (BUS 400) courses give pupils supervised-on-the-job experiences within the community, whether their sponsored agencies are business companies or governmental.
Approved interns are given a copy of the BBA Student Internship Manual to guide them in the direction of an accurate and meaningful fulfillment within the program. The Manual’s preface upholds the assignments “[afford students] an opportunity to augment [their] academic studies with first-hand business experience. If [they] are willing to put full effort into it, [their] internship experience can provide [them] with many insights into the world of work, new professional contacts, candid assessments [of their] readiness … and the opportunity to practice work-related skills and behaviors in a supervised real-life work setting”.
An instructor with nearly more than thirty years of experience, Martin understands how internships offer engaging material outside traditional classroom formats. He acknowledges the frequent problem of uninspiring lectures during a typical school day. It is with his assignments like marketing videos as well as the internships that Martin notes student enjoyment at making greater connections with others around them. He cites his Promotional Strategy class’ ads for YouTube as evidence of applying learning towards assisting local businesses and political campaigns. The IEG Federal Credit Union has even included such work by UH Hilo students on its homepage.
The hands-on exposure between students and businesses in Martin’s Promotional Strategy course is paralleled in the ACC and BUS 400 internship programs. Among the many advantages for Business students participating in the programs, he argues, is the opportunity for the evolution of one’s professional attitude and mindset.
“They (students) learn the words ‘I think’ are hollow,” Martin asserts. “Everybody thinks. We’re training you to make informed statements. What informs you? Is it theory? Is it data? Is it practice? Show me the evidence. My dog thinks, but I’m not going to listen to my dog. We want people to graduate and go out and … give informed information or decisions to their companies or their employers. … That’s where the added value (of internships) comes in.”
Students, through the Accounting and Business internship programs, encounter more situations reflecting actual workplace environments. They work with employees, differently than they would with classmates or Martin. Interns from UH Hilo also understand the importance of moving beyond textbooks, stretching their understanding of what they have learned. The internships confer practical knowledge to pupils, rather than menial tasks such as copying or filing, in order to better help them locate careers which resonate with them.
“When you look for a job, employers want people with experience,” Martin continues. “To get experience you need a job, so it becomes a catch-22. The internship gives you that experience and so it’s going to make your job-search easier.”
Peleiupu Thomas, a recent UH Hilo graduate with a B.B.A. in Accounting and Business Administration (Concentration: Management), interned twice under the ACC 400 course in 2013 and the previous term. Serving first as a Compliance Auditor intern at the IEG Federal Credit Union, Thomas’ duties included completing monthly loan portfolio analyses, auditing loans, and using the iPower data-processing system. From the experience, she learned how credit unions operate daily. She also furthered her knowledge of institutional laws and regulations, besides customer service, employee/time management, and successful leadership.
Thomas’ second internship at Taketa, Iwata, Hawara and Associates, LLC saw her processing tax returns and preparing the IRS Form 1099 for clients. As with her prior internship, she discerned the daily operations of an accounting firm while honing her professional strengths. She credits her experiences at both the IEG and TIH in shaping her career pathway to becoming a Certified Public Account.
“Working at IEG was definitely a positive experience,” Thomas writes. “I was able to network with business people in [the] state of Hawaii, including Compliance Auditors from Oahu. The experience also helped me academically. I was able to relate a lot of what I did to my course work and I was able to manage my time more efficiently. Honestly, I started doing much better in school while interning at IEG.” She has similarly great things to say about her experiences at the TIH.
“My career goal is to become a CPA. Interning at TIH allowed me [to] interact with accountants who had the same career goals. I was also able to interact and learn more about becoming a CPA and the best ways to do so.”
Students curious about the internships must have completed the UHH’s core business courses to qualify. As both internships are part of upper-division classes, Martin expects pupils will be in their senior year, taking either Accounting or Business 400 as electives— though he expresses hope that all men and women in the Business field will intern. The internships also require students to have a minimum 3.00 grade-point standing. Once the program concludes, interns submit a comprehensive report and receive a performance appraisal from their employer(s), which is then averaged by professors like Martin for a grade.
From there, UH Hilo Accounting or Business interns may obtain sponsorships and present themselves as significant candidates for the companies they have become acquainted with. The hands-on experiences, developed skills from exposure to real-life work cultures, networking, and opportunities for personal growth will be priceless across the board.
The proposal to consider? With a little applied learning done outside classrooms, profit margins for Business interns are sure to be high.
Drew Martin, Ph.D., is a marketing professor at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Please contact (808) 974-7553 or drmartin@hawaii.edu for more information.
