Getting your foot in the door

Lewis & Clark students interested in getting practical work experience are pleased to find that Northwest businesses are also interested in them.

Nick Richey, a senior from Vancouver, Washington, has had no problem getting his foot in the door of several local and national businesses. The Lewis & Clark economics major has scored four internships in the last three years. He wrangled his first internship with a financial planning firm through a combination of knowledge, persistence, and connections. (The firm’s owner was an alumnus of Lewis & Clark College.) That experience helped him land a stint in a commercial real estate firm.

With those two successes under his belt, Nick claimed a highly coveted summer internship with the Boeing Company in Seattle. When he returned to school last fall, he began his fourth internship, working with a nationally known economics consultant--an opportunity he found through the College’s website.

As he approaches graduation, Nick has much to be grateful for: Boeing has offered him a three-year finance rotation--a job that would pay his tuition to graduate school. “You don’t always realize the applicability of everything you learn in class until a real-life situation comes along,” says Nick. “My internships have made me much more excited about the possibilities of my major. They’ve given a whole new, hands-on dimension to what I’m learning.”