Student Involvement Opportunities
Loras has more than 100 co-curricular and involvement opportunities including organizations relating to academic majors, national honorary and professional societies, student and residence hall government, interest groups and recreational interests.
- Accounting Club provides opportunities for leadership positions, networking with accounting professionals and learning more about the accounting profession.
- Several business-related clubs and organizations.
- VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) is an opportunity for accounting seniors to volunteer to prepare income tax returns for low income and elderly clients free of charge; the program is in partnership with the IRS.
BUSINESS STUDENTS GET VALUABLE INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE
Internships are a win-win: good for the students and good for the organizations. Students integrate what they have studied with the work they are assigned. Often, successful completion of an internship leads to an offer of full-time employment when the student graduates.
Katie Callaghan, a marketing major, completed an internship with Dubuque marketing agency Plaid Swan, which she learned about through the Center for Experiential Learning (CEL).
I learned new writing skills at Plaid Swan, such as writing white paper documents, utilizing social media for small businesses, and creating and executing marketing plans for various clients. I also was responsible for meeting with clients on a weekly basis, developing case studies on previous campaigns, researching target audiences for rebranding efforts, and providing creative feedback to my clients and supervisors.”
The Loras College Center for Experiential Learning offers:
- Workshops with topics including internships, how to use Google in searching and why and how to network
- Networking Events—students often develop meaningful relationships that may lead to internships
- Career Fairs each fall have led to internships
- Individual meetings showing students how to search and how to network through LinkedIn, a strong tool to connect with alumni by joining Loras alumni groups
Students are taught how to seek out internships as those are the skills they will need the rest of their lives to find full-time positions. Business faculty communicate internship openings to students from a variety of sources, including directly from companies, recruiting websites, or from our Center for Experiential Learning. Students may also find internship positions through career fairs or the Iowa College Recruiting Network. Faculty serve as supervisors for the internships when students choose to earn academic credit.
Chelsea Myers, an accounting major graduate, secured internships in two distinctly different ways—one through contact with a Loras professor and one through her own existing network. She served as Petal Project Intern at ECIA, which she learned about through David Cochran, Ph.D., politics department, where she assisted with program implementation, tracking and promotion; and she currently interns for the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque, a position she found through her own Facebook network.
“I have learned about proper business etiquette and how much goes into planning a fundraising event that requires the support of an array of area businesses and supporters. In addition to business etiquette and event planning, I have also advanced my knowledge of philanthropy and grant writing, which I am excited to take with me into future endeavors.”
LEADERSHIP, EXPERIENCE, RESOURCE, AND NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES
Leadership, experience, resource, and networking opportunities can be pursued in a number of student organizations, including:
- Association of Computing Machinery (ACM)
- Advertising and Marketing Association (AMA)
- Phi Beta Lambda (PBL)
- Financial Management Association (FMA)
- Institute of Management Accountants (IMA)
- Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM)
Students benefit from a program that offers an impressive list of classes from which to choose, along with a large number of internships and opportunities to test your knowledge against “real world” situations before graduation.
- Over 4,500 alums have graduated with an accounting/business major since the program’s founding in 1945.
- All students take a common core of classes in addition to required courses for their specific major. This core allows them to broaden their business knowledge, as well as helping focus their interest in a specific area.
- Committed to graduating students within 4 years, all students majoring in the division will have an advisor who cares about their academic progress and future career success.
- Loras provides an active division-run internship program, offering local, regional, national and international opportunities during the traditional academic year as well as summers.
- Placement rate for graduates annually exceeds 90%.
