A Test Run for Young Talent
February 18th, 2010Lexmark, Alltech and Big Ass Fans may not have a great deal in common beyond the region in which they are headquartered. They are very different types of businesses run on very different business models. Yet, here’s one thing on which they all agree: internships are valuable.
Internships provide opportunities for companies to test young talent and for young talent to test the world of work. Billy Frey, who oversees Alltech’s marketing internship program, says that almost all new Alltech hires have previously interned with the company for three to 12 months. Each intern gets a “crash course in our culture and pace,” and interns and managers alike see plainly when the Alltech way is not a match. When it is a match, though, the internship experience can give the company a leg up in recruiting the employee.
Read more at BizLex.com >>Tagged: Career, Local happenings, Opportunity
Higher education: opting in, opting out
February 4th, 2010Earlier this month, news of the $128 million Powerball lottery swept across Kentucky. We waited with bated breath to find out who had the lucky ticket and how the winner’s life would change. As it turned out, the jackpot went to a couple from Georgetown, and we’ve learned through news reports that they dream of visiting Hawaii and purchasing a new car. Many of us share those dreams.
Yet the anticipated life change that drew my greater interest was an expressly stated desire to go back to school, possibly to study finance. That’s right: this couple, now in a position to hire a team of accountants and investment advisors to manage their winnings, believes in the importance of education. They can do whatever they’d like in life. And where higher education is concerned, they’re opting in.
Read more at BizLex.com >>Tagged: Choices, College, Local happenings, Personal characteristics
On college applications, let your best shine through
December 21st, 2009Around the winter holidays, perhaps more so than at any other time, we want to be our best selves. We wish not for pretense, but rather for authenticity. We take stock of our lives and resolve, as the new year approaches, to make our best selves a little better still in the year ahead.
But how to do it? If we want to shape up physically, we’ll exercise more and change the way we eat. If we want to improve relationships with friends or family, we’ll try to be kinder and more thoughtful, placing their needs well ahead of our own. These aren’t things we can fake; either we’ll succeed in these realms through true effort and intent, or we won’t.
Read more at BizLex.com >>Tagged: Applications, Choices, College, Personal characteristics
Scholarship: a new synonym for discount
November 25th, 2009Several months ago, a letter arrived from a local seafood restaurant, offering $25 toward our next meal there. Weeks later, an invitation to a gathering at a well-known traditional women’s clothing store arrived, promising 20 percent off any purchase made at that event. Just a few days ago at a professional meeting in North Carolina, the parallel practices of the world of higher education, where discounting carries alternate names, hit home for me: merit scholarships, honorary scholarships and need-based financial aid are in expansion mode.
Tuition discounting is not a new concept: need-based financial assistance has cut the sticker price of college for millions of students. A small number of colleges, including Kentucky’s own Berea College, specialize in educating students from low-income backgrounds and enabling them to graduate without debt. Some prominent colleges with sizable endowments and applicant pools have followed this example in recent years, replacing the loan component of their financial aid packages with outright grant funding, drawing more candidates than ever before.
Read more at BizLex.com >>Tagged: College, Financial aid, Scholarship
