National Intern Day: The Latest on Career Services
(SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY — July 31, 2025) Experiential learning is becoming increasingly more valuable to college students and recent graduates, making internships worth investing in for universities. To celebrate National Intern Day, the Office of Career & Experiential Learning Services shares valuable resources to help students confidently move through the career and internship process at Empire State University.
Career Platforms
Available via single sign-on, this online tool evaluates possible career paths for students, taking into consideration interests, personality, values, and skills, among others. Starting this fall, students will have access to this Holland Code-based assessment, which aligns personalities with work areas and maps to SUNY Empire majors and career paths.
To practice interview skills, students can access Big Interview through single sign-on. The platform delivers mock interviews—in both English and Spanish, as the university continues to expand its bilingual offerings—so students can hone their ability to respond to questions, speak to their capabilities, and gain confidence in scenarios that mimic real interviews. The platform also offers resume development, with scoring against applicant tracking systems (ATS), and suggestions to better match resumes to job descriptions.
Forage
The job simulator platform provides students with real-life experience in their desired profession, helping build confidence and discover how they might apply skills gained through their program of study. Working with real companies to develop modules, Forage is a self-paced and low-stakes way to discover what daily tasks come with the jobs they are interested in. While Forage is already available to students via single sign-on, landing pages organized by field of study are currently under development to better guide users to relevant simulations, ranging from sales positions to software engineering.
Internships
Functioning as a stepping stone from academia to a professional career, internships can help students understand the tangible applications of what they’ve learned during their college career. Besides earning real work experience in their field, an internship can help validate their desire to enter that field or redirect towards a better fit. In many cases, internships provide networking opportunities that lead to a job offer and can also be a source for recommendations when job hunting.
At Empire State University, the Internship Initiative launched by the Office of Career Services aims to demystify the internship process and connect students with limited experience, or who have undergone a career change, to credit-bearing, unpaid internship opportunities. To support students that seek to pursue an unpaid internship, there are limited stipends available.
Anita DeCianni-Brown, director of Career and Experiential Learning Services, highlights some key benefits of internships: “[They] can help elevate a student’s network … and in most cases can solidify, ‘Yes, this is definitely something that I want to be doing. I’m glad that I’m pursuing this path.’”
She also comments, “It’s a good test drive into a career path and it also could lead to future employment either by way of a part-time job while still in school, or maybe a full-time job after somebody has completed their degree.”
In the 2024-2025 academic year, the number of students who participated in internships rose from 30 to 50. Projections for this fall estimate that up to 30 students are expected to pursue an internship. DeCianni-Brown highlights that Addiction Studies internships match students to in-person, community-based placements, allowing them to engage meaningfully in their home area.
The Career Hub is the central platform for internship and career resources, but DeCianni-Brown also notes that the university offers “411 on SUNY Empire’s Internship Initiative” workshops each semester, as well as email outreach to inform students about opportunities regularly.
Students seeking to engage in experiential learning opportunities such as an internship are encouraged to take advantage of the resources available through the Career Hub, attend an informational workshop, or get in contact with the Office of Career & Experiential Learning Services.