Why more than 80% of Augustana College students have internships

Of Augustana’s Class of 2025, 83.5% completed one or more internships. This compares with percentages in the 60s and 70s over the past 10 years. Nationwide, 66% of college students complete internships (National Assoc. of Colleges & Employers). 

Internships can be invaluable to students’ futures. Not only can they determine career paths and build real experience in a work setting, they also stand out to potential employers and may lead directly to first jobs.

For Augustana students, internship sites range from campus to the Quad Cities, around the country and across the world. Starting in the sophomore year, students may use their $2,000 Augie Choice funding to support the experience, especially unpaid internships or those requiring travel. Landing a good internship often means combining a sense of adventure with practical thinking, plus the guidance of a professor or career coach in CORE (Career, Opportunities, Research, Exploration).

Augie Choice is a $2,000 grant available to every Augustana student, starting in their sophomore year, to support a high-impact learning experience such as an internship, research or creative project, or study abroad.

Grace Jenkins ’26, a biology/pre-med major from Washington, Illinois, used Augie Choice for a month-long internship working with a general care physician in Costa Rica. Her very first day set the pace, beginning with the 40-minute walk to the clinic site.

“Within the span of five hours, I was directly visiting with patients, talking through medical histories, talking through symptoms, taking vital signs, aiding in physical examinations, and taking thorough notes to try to come up with a logical diagnosis and procedural solution — entirely in Spanish.”

Not a Spanish major, Jenkins relied on her four years of high school Spanish, help from the doctor and nursing staff, and the kind patients who helped her find her voice and confidence. 

By the end of the first week, she said, “I had grown into a person I never knew I could be and felt a new sense of resiliency and capability that I had never quite found before. Truly a scary but incredibly rewarding experience!”

While not all students seek internships off the beaten path, Niccolo Benvenuto ’26 of Milan, Italy, does enjoy being a trailblazer. His multiple internships reflect his two majors: geology and political science. (Acknowledging that geopolitics will be a growing area in the future, Benvenuto noted, “People like to say, ‘Are you going to teach political science to rocks?’ I like to flip it and say: ‘Teach politicians about rocks.’”)

Benvenuto served as an office intern for U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth in Rock Island; as a geology consultant for the Quad Cities’ Putnam Museum and Leap Lab Science Center in Ventura, Calif., during a dinosaur excavation in Wyoming (the fossilized triceratops currently is in Augustana’s Swenson Hall of Geosciences paleontology lab, being prepared for exhibition at the Putnam Museum in 2027); and as a legal assistant for a Denver-based law firm.

That internship was during the summer of the Paris Olympics, and many of his law clients were foreign athletes in track & field seeking immigration to the U.S. “Come August I was watching these clients running in the Olympics, and I had their files sitting next to me on my desktop.” 

Benvenuto’s work involved researching these athletes’ achievements, filing petitions and drafting legal arguments that linked their achievements to specific language in the U.S. legal code. 

“I just loved doing that. I found my natural talent,” he said.

And yet, Benvenuto declined returning to the Denver law firm this summer in favor of a position that spoke to his adventurous side: a geotechnical internship for an engineering firm in Fairbanks, Alaska. His job will be to assess soil stability in potential sites for buildings and roads in northern Alaska, including the Arctic Circle.

“All my past experiences helped me secure this job, even the political and legal ones,” he pointed out. “It’s important to accurately write field reports, for example.”

Not all internships take students to other countries, remote areas of the U.S., or even out of state. Many interns discover career passions in Augustana’s own Quad Cities.

During her marketing internship with Visit Quad Cities, Lauren Hoffman ’26 of Rockford, Illinois, found out “how cool it is here” in the Quad Cities — and found her career goals.

A triple major in art, graphic design and multimedia journalism & mass communication, Hoffman had many interests. For her Visit Quad Cities internship, she used skills gained at two previous internships in the area: NEST Cafe, a nonprofit serving locally sourced food on a donation basis, and WVIK, Augustana’s NPR-affiliate radio station.

“At NEST Cafe I got to connect with people, and at WVIK News I got to really hone in on my writing and editing skills. Both of those prepared me for Visit Quad Cities, where I write, edit and connect with people on a daily basis,” she said. “Each of my internship experiences works harmoniously with one another, just providing me with new skills that complement the ones I previously learned!”

At Visit Quad Cities, Hoffman experienced the fun and creative side of marketing, and it gave her a concrete idea for her future. She also connected with the community and culture of her workplace. 

“It’s also very intriguing how things are different every day here, and I definitely want this feeling for my long-term job.” 

As much as internships build career skills, sometimes it’s that “feeling” of the work that brings it home. Working alongside medical professionals at a rural clinic in Costa Rica, Grace Jenkins said she “developed a strong sense of resiliency, determination and love for people.” And for Nico Benvenuto, a life of adventure is the offer he can’t turn down.

An emotional connection to the work can feel as important as a paycheck throughout a career. This is another reason why experiential learning — engaged, project-based learning based in real work experience — is such a necessary part of an Augustana education.