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A Front Row Seat
to Life,  Barbara
Pinto ’86, ABC News

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Valuable and Rewarding

Our Buffalo-based internship program has benefited the department and our students. Students benefit from first-hand exposure to a profession or field they may want to pursue following graduation. Some confirm a career choice while others decide to move in a different direction. They have a chance to test what they have learned in the classroom, experience the demands of a professional work environment, gain a valuable addition to their resume and begin building their professional network. A few receive job offers; virtually all receive a valuable recommendation that they can use during their job search.

As a result of the internship program, Houghton College and the business department have enhanced name recognition and built a strong reputation in the Buffalo-area business community. The question “Where’s Houghton?” so common in the 1970s is rarely heard today. In fact we often receive calls requesting a Houghton intern.—Dick Halberg ’71, professor of business

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Houghton’s internship program was a valuable and rewarding part of my college experience. I really enjoyed living in West Seneca and getting a taste of the working world. It was a great way to bring together and apply everything I learned during my years at Houghton.

My internship was in the accounting department at HSBC Mortgage Corporation. I helped with a major software conversion, prepared reports for the monthly report package and completed other miscellaneous tasks.

In addition to the mortgage-related experience and knowledge that I gained, I learned business skills that are best taught through experience. I learned what an employer expects, saw acceptable ways to conduct oneself in a variety of business situations and learned many other things. I attended meetings and was involved in other areas that an entry level employee wouldn’t have been exposed to.

This allowed me to learn more about banking and HSBC, and to see how VPs and Senior VPs conducted themselves in a business setting. Finally, the most rewarding part of my experience was that it allowed me to prove myself and led to my first job after graduation: employed in the same department, where I learned more about the mortgage and banking industries.—Kara (Sandefer ’05) Chitty