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Local interns call St. Ambrose home

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By Doug Schorpp | Friday, July 04, 2008 |

Mike Lindsay, who oversees the summer internship housing program at St. Ambrose, says “one of the challenges is, some are working very long hours, 40 hours or more. Some come home and experience burnout.” (Larry Fisher/QUAD-CITY TIMES) Buy this Photo

St. Ambrose University is providing housing this summer for a very temporary group of students — and they’re not even enrolled in classes.

Sixty young people who are interning at various Quad-City businesses have taken up residence on the Davenport campus.

“It’s a great partnership,” Matt Hansen, director of residence life and housing, said of the tenants he calls externs, or visiting interns. “It’s part of our university mission, to be in and of our community. This is a very tangible way to do that. We help them and they in turn learn about St. Ambrose.”

He said it can be difficult and expensive for interns to find housing for a three-month period during the summer. “We are able to say we have a commodity and we think it is a fair rate, $15 a day for a full, furnished apartment,” he said. Each apartment houses either four or six interns.

Hansen said Deere & Co. contacted St. Ambrose last summer about housing some of its interns. This year, 33 of the 50 interns staying on the Davenport campus are working for Deere in the Quad-City area.

Hansen said the environment in the apartments is good. He said students get to meet “like-minded individuals” from other colleges and the dormitory setting provides a “nice, safe, fun community feel.”

Mike Lindsay, a St. Ambrose hall director and overseer of the summer intern housing program, said interns are working at places such as the Quad-Cities Generating Station, Russell Construction and Alcoa Davenport Works and with the Quad-Cities River Bandits. In addition to housing, social activities are planned.

“We will follow the format of a regular academic year, so we will do typical summer stuff, like taking them to a Bandits game, playing volleyball games and having a barbecue.”

He said most of the students arrived May 18.

“I think it has been going pretty well,” Lindsay said. “One of the challenges is, some are working very long hours, 40 hours or more. Some come home and experience burnout.

“But they have been networking with students here. In those same two buildings, we have at least 40 or 50 (St. Ambrose) students taking summer classes.”

By mingling with students, he said the interns learn about activities, places to go and other events on campus and in the community.

Hansen said he sees the intern program growing next summer, in part because a new residence hall now under construction should be complete.

Doug Schorpp can be contacted at (563) 383-2292 or dschorpp@qctimes.com.