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Paid internships are on the rise, but competition increases as amount of internships decreases due to stricter labor laws.

Photo from Education-Portal

Internships have become essential learning experiences for any college student in any major. They used to solely be seen as educational, but now are necessary for any student looking for a job. Internships are valuable for students because it allows for exposure to a desired industry, networking, and resume building opportunities. Employers choose to have interns because they are a cost-effective recruiting strategy, provide fresh perspectives and can assist with a number of projects.

 

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, over 75 percent of students will have an internship by the time they graduate.  At the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, students are required to have an internship to graduate. A growing amount, 52 percent, however, will hold more than one across their college career. Internships allow students to practice their skills in a professional environment.

Employers reported to the National Association of Colleges and Employers that 97.5 percent of their internships would be paid in 2014, but the amount of internship opportunities would decrease.

Number of Internships Students have
while in College Graphic created
by Jaclyn Turner via Survey Monkey

The above statistic proves that paid internships are a growing trend. However, two-thirds of employers chose to decrease intern hires in 2014, except in the Northeast, where internship increased 10 percent.

However, out of 100 students who completed a Survey Monkey, 58 have had an internship, and only 57 percent of those students have had at least one paid internship- a large discrepancy from NACE’s projection.  Of these students who were paid, only four were journalism majors. The rest were in business or engineering fields. 

Two-thirds of the students applied for two or more internships before receiving one. It took most students responding three to five applications before securing an internship. Of the 33 students who have had a paid internship, 67 percent applied to two or more sites before finding a placement.  

Number of Internships that have
been paid, measured in percentage.
Graphic created by Jaclyn Turner
via Survey Monkey 

Of the 23 who have had no paid internships, 15 of whom are students at the University of Maryland, 72 percent are usually applying to two or more internships.  

Eleven students (out of the 42 who have had zero internships) who participated in the survey and who have applied for internships, still have not found a match.

Also, the majority of students with paid internships, were not students at the University of Maryland. A further topic that could be examined at a later date is does one’s college affect if one get’s paid?

The Fair Labor Standards Act requires organizations to pay interns if the employer receives any benefit.

The Fair Labor Standards Act qualifies when an internship may be unpaid. 

In 2010, the US Department of Labor created a six credential test: must be similar to the training an intern would receive in an educational environment, is for the benefit of the intern, does not displace regular employees, has no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern, the intern is not entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship, and both employer and intern understand that the intern is not entitled to payment.

If a business does not meet these six requirements, a for-profit organization must pay interns for work performed with an hourly salary or stipend, as it is viewed as being employed.   Organizations often try to get around paying interns by requiring students to supply documentation that they can receive school credit. 

Philip Merrill College at the University of Maryland internships and career development director, Adrianne Flynn discussed how the FLSA affected the amount of internships available to students.  

If interns are not paid, the internship may be illegal if any of those six rules are not met, and students have the right to sue for payment. The website, Unpaid Interns Lawsuit, is a tool to help interns who were exploited for their talents during internships. 

Meanwhile, a rising demand for internships complimented by a decreasing amount of opportunities available due to these labor laws has created a frustrating dynamic and added competition for students who want internships.

Class Video recording quiz

 Why are the new multimedia techniques in this iCourse important to the future of digital communication?

Describe things that differentiate basic videotaping from professional quality videotaping.

Julia's favorite app to use

CareerBuilder reveals why people take sick days

This CNN article about some of the whacky sick day excuses employees make examines how many people in a sample of 5,300 actually take "sick" days based on job field, why they take these days off, and the behaviors surrounding why people do or don't choose to take sick days when they are actually sick.

University of Maryland Professor awarded Packard Fellowship to further research in Geoscience. Jaclyn62 and Melo61

The framing of the story is to discuss who Vedran Lekic is, what he is being recognized for, and what the award money allows him to research. 
Importance of the facts: the grant award,  the researcher himself, the new research, the researcher himself, the science  

(7) (background)
Nearly 2 million data lines fill the screen of University of Maryland Geology Professor, Vedran Lekic’s computer every day, each representing seismic waves that are detected from more than 1,700 seismic stations around the U.S.
(5) (news)

Lekic in front of his computer showing off seismic waves in the Earth's core. 

From this data, Lekic is creating a map that will not only cover all 48 contiguous states, Alaska and Puerto Rico, but also dive deep into the Earth’s crust and core.
(18) (background) As a doctoral student at the University of California, Berkley, Lekic formulated higher-resolution images of the Earth’s mantle structure, stemming from his creation of a global seismic velocity model. Not only is the model able to give geologists a better understanding of plate tectonics, but it also helps explain the movement of continental plates and their evolution, Lekic said.

Faculty Member awarded prestigious Fellowship thats combines Science and Engineering. 
(1) (news)
In recognition of his efforts to integrate computer science and geological studies, Lekic joined the ranks of 17 other early career U.S. scientists and engineers who were awarded a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering last week. 
(8) (explanation)
“If you look at the field of those who get it and try to figure out from their research summaries and letters which are the strongest candidate, it’s a difficult task,” said Franklin Orr, chairman of the Packard Fellowship panel. “We always run out of fellowships before we run out of wonderful people to give them too.”

(4) (background)
Lekic is now one of five alumni faculty members who have received the award while at this university, and he will be given access to unrestricted funds of $875,000 over a five-year period to support his extensive research on Earth’s inner structure.
(9) (explanation) 
“The great thing about this fellowship is its flexibility to go chase a really good idea to wherever it leads,” said Orr, a Stanford University professor. “It is an incredibly valuable fund and gives the researchers an opportunity to take off with a good idea instead of waiting a year or more for federal money.”

(15) (explanation)
Now that a large fund has been granted to his work, Lekic hopes to spend more time plotting the seismic information in graphs and models so that he may better understand the Earth.

Lekic plans to create a map to show seismic vibrations of the Earth. 

(10)  (background)
Lekic’s research is based on ground vibration recordings, which he and his students use to detect the scattering of seismic waves across the North American tectonic plate. In conjunction with the National Science Foundation’s EarthScope Facility network, the data is collected from the 49 states and Puerto Rico and makes up about 3.8 million square miles, Lekic said.

An example of ground vibration recordings 

(12)
“EarthScope is kind of like our Apollo mission, but not as costly,” Lekic said


(2) (background)
Lekic has already used the seismic information to investigate why and how the crust moves over the Earth’s mantle. As of now, the deepest any machine has been able to dig was about 12 kilometers into the Earth’s crust, a minuscle fracture of the roughly 6,730 kilometers it takes to get to the Earth’s core. Using the seismic information helps geologists see the shapes and sizes of the Earth’s layers.

Lekic looks to build another model of the earth that uses newly discovered particles called neutrinos. 

(3) (news)
Other than his seismology research contributions, Lekic is also a forerunner in the new geological field of neutrino geoscience. 

(6) (background)
Neutrinos are a type of electrically neutral subatomic particle that are created during radioactive decay or some kinds of nuclear reactions. The particle, which was only discovered geologically in 2005 and physically detected for the first time last year, moves through every kind of object, said geology professor William McDonough.

(17) (news)
Lekic and McDonough are attempting to harness that energy to create another way to build a model of the Earth.

(16) (explanation)
“We are both interested in the energy that moves the tectonic plates and creates the magnetic shield around the planet,”McDonough said. 

(11) (explanation)
“It sounds magical; it’s like a particle that exists but you can’t really see,” Lekic said of neutrinos.

(13) (explanation) 
“What we do is comparable to how an ultrasound let’s us see through our bodies,” Lekic said. “But this lets us see through the Earth.”



We have interactivity with the links for people who want to learn more about specific definitions and concepts. The links all work so there shouldn't be much kick out. We tried to place the image in a place which talks about Lekic and his computer, creating contiguity.  It is personalized toward the University of Maryland population. 

Study shows how people access news Jaclyn62 and Micha28

Study shows population sampled in Brazil is most interested in news.

Although many studies show how often people access the news, this particular study revealed a country’s interest in news.  Many people may access the news several times a day, but according to this data, that does not explicitly mean they are interested, only implied. 87 percent of Brazilians expressed interest in the news.  Only 68 percent of Americans are interested in news. Residents of France and the United Kingdom are the “least interested” in news at 64 percent.  The study also revealed that people become more interested in news as people age as 61 percent of young adults 18-24 were interested in news. That percentage rose to 79 percent for the 55 and over population.

All countries in study show increase in mobile devices to access news.

With the increase in adoption of smartphone and tablet technology, the United States, The United Kingdom, Germany, France, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Brazil and Japan all had positive increases in using a tablet or a smartphone to access the news between 2013 and 2014.  With the multitude of  Twenty percent of users said that the smartphone is their main way of accessing news online.  

mobile devices available right now( tablets, laptops, smartphones) there has been a negative change in the amount of people who only use one type of mobile device to access the news, proving that people use all their devices to consume news. The study revealed that 39 percent of the population will get their news on at least two digital devices.

In 2014, TV continues to dominate how the world accesses news.

Although using online or mobile methods to access the news is on the rise, for every country except Finland, the majority of the population uses TV news to stay up to date on current events.  Online news access is the second most popular method. The percentage of print access is lowest in the United States (6 percent) and Brazil (4 percent), but 20 percent of the Finland sample still values print news. Also, it is now fact that the least popular method to access news is the radio, except in France and Germany where radio news is more important than print. 

Online versus usage shows top brands and websites for news access. 

The graphic depicts brand usage online and offline.. Giant brands likes Yahoo news, Fox News and Huffington post have the largest viewing audience online as well as local newspaper websites. Also, cable news channels, and local television stations have a considerable reach offline. Online, Yahoo is used 28 percent, followed by local newspaper website with 18 percent Fox News. Offline, local news broadcasts and publications dominate followed by  FOX  News.