BY AJ LAMB AND ADAM ROHMAN
At Bradley University, one of the best places to apply to internships is through the Smith Career Center. Each college on Bradley’s campus has their own career advisor and it helps students to have a more direct interaction with the career center, and their field. Several hundred employers show up to Bradley job fairs throughout the academic year looking to find new and exciting students looking to work for their company.
Kim Dunn is the Assistant Director of the Career Center as well as the Career Advisor for the Slane College of Communication and Fine Arts. Her career in communications started back at Augustana University in the Quad Cities where she earned a degree in Speech Communication with a minor in Psychology. She then went and worked in radio industry in the Chicagoland area, before finally coming to work at Bradley. Dunn has stuck with Bradley and has been here for the last 10 years.
Dunn wanted to work at a college in part to loving the environment. She felt that this was the right job because of her experiences running the internship programs for the radio stations in Chicago. Her degree in communications, background in music and being a college athlete fit the criteria for being the Career Advisor for the College of Communications and Fine Arts.
Dunn helps out roughly four to eight students a day, but that mostly depends on the time of the year. She remarked that sometimes the career advisors are slammed and have back to back appointments, then at other times, they are hardly busy at all.
An advisor’s job is not all cut-and-dry, Dunn has to take on whatever role the student needs. She said her job ranges from helping them pick a major to deciding what career they want to get into. She also helps with all the little necessities of cover letters, resumes, etc. At the Smith Career Center they even have interview prep which she also helps the student with so when they are in the meeting one on one with the employer they can succeed in it.
“We essentially are that partner that works with the student on whatever it is their focus is on life after Bradley,” said Dunn.
Dunn’s favorite component is helping out the students with the internship process. She mentioned that a lot of students are focused on a specific career that they have in mind. However, once they get the internship though they realize that it isn’t as grand as they thought it was going to be. She enjoys watching students really find their niche and decide where they actually want to be in the field.
“It’s kind of awesome to see that light-bulb, and then they decide that ‘I like this industry or I like this size company’, ‘I like doing this type of work versus this type of work’” Dunn said.
Advisors like Dunn are completely vital to students on this campus. Whether it be finding jobs for graduating seniors or internships for underclassmen, the Career Center advisors work hard to help students as best they can. Keenan Irish is a graduating senior political science who did not go to the career center until his senior year, but would not have a job lined up for next year without them.
“I got help from Rick [Smith] developing my application for the Illinois Legislative internship program which is a huge application process, there’s usually between 200 and 300 people in the state who fill out the application for 25 total positions, in large part thanks to the career center I was selected for one of those positions,” Irish said.
While Irish was not a student under Dunn’s jurisdiction, this just goes to show how good the advisors are. On the other end of the spectrum is sophomore sports communications major, Sammy Dellaria. Even though she’s not as close to graduating and getting into the real world as Irish is, she is not letting that stop her from using Dunn to find new and exciting opportunities in the field. Dellaria especially appreciates the person that Dunn is and how much she helps students.
“I think that having Kim Dunn on campus herself is super beneficial for students because it gives us a place to turn to for guidance when we want to learn about writing a resume, editing our cover letters for content, honing interview skills and just learning kind of those basic professional skills that we really need to start a search for a job or an internship.” Dellaria said.
As a whole, the Smith Career Center offered 1,547 internships for the 2014-2015 school year. Over a five year period between 2010-2015 Bradley offered a hefty 8,830 internship opportunities. 97% of graduates participated in experiential learning compared to the 65% participating in experiential learning nationally. The career outcome rate of Slane College over a 10 year period is 87%.
One of the most prolific opportunities offered at Bradley is the NBC Olympics internship. This internship has gone on since the 2012 London Olympics. The internships also include destinations in the Chicago area and even out to the west coast. So if the student wants something closer to their home, there is a good chance that the Smith Career Center has an opportunity for them. Some of the other high-profile internships that students have received include studios in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Dodgers and training camps for the Chicago Bears.
It is clear that Bradley University offers something very special with the Smith Career Center. Having dedicated advisors, such as Kim Dunn, to help students is a huge asset to Bradley’s student body. With the results it boasts, it seems that going to the career center is a must for Bradley students, and better sooner than later.