Career services boasts of a 96 percent employment and graduate placement rate within six months of graduation. This percentage reflects a high demand for Hillsdale graduates.
This year alone, 17 organizations have visited Hillsdale College in search of future interns and employees. Among the organizations are recruiters from Fox News Channel, the Heritage Foundation, the Koch Institute, Stryker, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Target, and Whirlpool. What makes these presentations unique to Hillsdale is the involvement of Hillsdale alumni and student interns.
Junior Kasey Darling traveled with Koch recruiters last week to private colleges throughout Michigan. This semester Darling is studying abroad in Washington, D.C., with the Washington–Hillsdale Internship Program. She is an intern for the Koch Institute’s recruitment department.
Koch invited Darling to assist with a Hillsdale presentation regarding internship and employment opportunities at Koch.
“I am doing a recruitment internship this time around, which I really enjoy,” Darling said. “From what I have seen, we get quite a lot of applicants from Hillsdale.”
Darling said that organizations like Koch continue to visit Hillsdale because of their past success with Hillsdale graduates.
“Koch’s recruitment team thought it would be great to bring an actual student intern to Hillsdale,” Darling said. “The number of Hillsdale students that apply for the various programs is pretty large in comparison to the size of our school.”
Organizations use Hillsdale alumni and students to recruit highquality applicants. Junior Ashley
Pieper spent last summer interning for Target in Nebraska. When Target recruiters came to Hillsdale in September, they asked her to help with the presentation.
“It felt great to know that they had enough confidence in an intern to allow me to speak for their company as a whole,” Pieper said. “Target knows what is expected of an intern position and they have seen that Hillsdale students fit the role.”
Courtney Noonan, internship program coordinator for career services, said that the increase of oncampus recruitment is driven by organizations’ recognition of Hillsdale’s education.
“Many of the recruiters tend to be Hillsdale college alumni. They understand the value of Hillsdale’s liberal arts education,” Noonan said. “They recognize the caliber of student and want to recruit. Because of the rigors of Hillsdale, our graduates and students are capable of jumping into any role.”
Student interest in summer internships has increased as well. According to Noonan, freshmen and sophomores are starting to shape their professional profile.
“I have had a fair number of freshmen and sophomores coming in and getting a jumpstart on the internship process,” Noonan said. “A fair amount of our job is getting students that exposure to organizations and get them to start thinking and asking questions about postgrad plans.”
The surge in oncampus recruitment is a reflection of the caliber of Hillsdale students. Pieper and Darling both agreed that recruiters have increased resources for recruitment at Hillsdale. “What I have found is that students who go to our school are professional. We want to work at a reputable organization and make those necessary connections,” Darling said. “This is what sets Hillsdale and other smaller colleges apart from those bigger universities. Recruiters recognize that and, therefore, we are special in that regard.”
