02.07.07

Catherine Tolbert

Erskine business majors get ready for real life

A number of Erskine College business majors spent the Winter Term engaged in externships. Their activities ranged from what Assistant Professor of Business Administration Anthony Santella called "a virtual externship project" to work in the office of a prominent politician.

Providing real-life experience that could help gain a hearing with prospective employers, externships are important for students hoping to forge business careers. Cassie Hixon, Steven King, Ashley Neely, Catherine Tolbert, Tara Wellborn and Sammy Zingales are among the business majors who can add an externship to their lengthening résumés as they continue academic preparation for the business world.

Cassie Hixon

Hixon assisted with billing administration for Palmetto Health; King worked with a technology-consulting firm on change management projects for Fortune 500 companies; Neely worked in Web site administration and development for Cass Information Systems; Tolbert worked for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole; and Wellborn and Zingales worked as general managers of The Black Cow Coffee House in Honea Path.

"All business majors take an externship in the winter semester of their junior year and an internship in the summer between their junior and senior year," Professor of Business Administration Dr. Charles Emery explained. "These experiences provide the ideal background or framework for learning and applying best practices in their senior year."

Ashley Neely

Neely said that during her externship, she was assigned new tasks each day. Projects she worked on included creating a customer satisfaction survey and researching Customer Relationship Management (CRM) packages to see which one was best suited to the company's needs.

"CRM packages allow one to put in different information about a client and keep it extremely organized," Neely said. "There are different providers of CRM and each one can offer different pros and cons."

Steven King

King's experience was an independent study with a consultant who operates out of her home office in Michigan, assisting clients all over the world. "I used a personal professional contact to get a virtual externship project with the top-ten technology consulting firm EDS," Santella said.

Connie Remenschneider, the consultant who worked with King, applauds the approach that Erskine takes with business majors. "We don't set them up for success in their first job if we don't provide that context by making sure we give them many opportunities to apply the textbook learning in real-life business situations before they graduate," she said.

"That is exactly what Professor Tony Santella has designed for his students at Erskine College in his business leadership curriculum," Remenschneider said, adding that she was impressed by the practical business skills King already possessed when he began working with her on change management projects.

"His recommendations for course corrective actions, based on data I had provided from one of my projects, were right on target with what senior leaders had identified and were more innovative," she said.

Santella cited the advantages of such a "virtual externship" for Erskine students. "It lacks the opportunities to work on site in an office, but it helps even the playing field with schools that are in cities where there are more densely located business opportunities," he said. "This allows a student to learn the skills to work collaboratively as many businesses obviously are doing today."

An externship actually called an "Internship in Public Policy" with the office of Sen. Elizabeth Dole was a move into the fast lane for Tolbert. Not only did she work in Washington, D.C., she arrived in time to attend hearings and listen to speeches as the 110th Congress began its first 100 hours.

Tolbert said Santella and Associate Dean of Students Penny Thomas helped her apply for the position. "Mr. Santella gave me guidance as to what professionals look for when they receive an application and how to 'wow' them in one page," she said.

Bringing together her business studies and a keen interest in politics, Tolbert selected "Small Business Healthcare" as the topic for a research paper required by Dole's office. She said she attended the initial Small Business Committee meeting led by U.S. Sen. John Kerry and concluded that healthcare was the biggest issue for that committee.

Tara Welborn

Wellborn said her externship continued a project begun in a small business management class with Emery in the fall. "The class was divided into three groups and each group was to analyze the Black Cow Coffee House and come up with solutions to increase their profits," she said.

Using the best ideas and suggestions from the class, Wellborn worked on "setting up a Point of Sale software system to make operations smoother." She also assisted with an art contest, challenging local school children to create a design to be painted on the side of the building. "This will be both an advertising project with the mural on the building, as well as a marketing technique to get parents and students to come into the shop," she said.

Wellborn, like many other business majors, has enjoyed her Winter Term in the real world of business, and said of student externships, "They can definitely be one of the biggest learning experiences in our four years here."

Sammy Zingales

"In today's very competitive job market for career-type jobs, it is critical a student has as much practical experience as possible — businesses are demanding it," Santella said. The business department's "Get Real Initiative" is driven by this demand, and the Small Business Support Center on campus is also part of the effort to secure hands-on experience for business majors.

"In addition to knowledge transfer, the Get Real Initiative is infusing 'real projects' into class work rather than just reading about business," Santella explained.

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