What do employers want from college graduates? Critical thinking skills, adaptability, speaking and writing skills, and persuasive argumentation. How do we know this? Because business leaders tell us, over and over. And that’s what our curriculum and our internship program are designed to teach you.
Queens has a professional internship that is unique in higher education. First, it is required, not optional. Second, it is experiential in nature, more than academic. After an introductory course called “The World of Work,” we place you in two semester-long internships. Typically, this takes place in the junior year. You get academic credit for your internship placements. Students give employers 260 work hours for 6 semester hours of credit or 520 hours for 12 hours of credit.
Queens interns serve in corporate and nonprofit or service organizations over a nine-month period and complete field trips, weekly class meetings, reflective journals, and a summary presentation at the end of the experience.
Why do we require this? We believe that our unique experience is the best possible preparation for our graduates to enter the world of work and the realm of responsible citizenship. More than 325 Charlotte-area organizations agree. They, among others, are the ones who recruit and hire Queens graduates.
Queens and Charlotte are connected on many levels, but nowhere are the connections more powerful than in the arena of business and commerce. Starting at the top, our Chairman of the Board of Trustees is Hugh L. McColl, Jr., recently retired CEO of Bank of America (the largest bank in the country) and current entrepreneur/venture capitalist. He leads a talented board of dedicated alumni and prominent business leaders that reads like a “Who’s Who” of regional movers and shakers.
But that’s not the best part of the business connections between Queens and Charlotte. That happens much closer to our students. Charlotte is a gold mine of opportunity for internships as well as job possibilities after graduation. What kind of opportunities? Check out these websites to get a better idea:
And don’t forget our very own McColl Graduate School of Business:
