College of Management names new full-time career and internship director for undergraduate students

October 9, 2007 – Raleigh, N.C. - Brendalee McCarthy joined the North Carolina State University College of Management on Monday, October 8, 2007, as the college’s first full-time director of career and internship development for undergraduate students.

Her office is located in the college’s Undergraduate Programs Office, 2180 Nelson Hall on NC State’s main campus in Raleigh, N.C.

McCarthy brings to the position more than 15 years’ experience in career coaching, business and teaching. In previous positions, she developed, implemented and coordinated training programs at both academic institutions and in private industry,  including a successful internship program for the College of Business at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Mich.

“Internships are an extremely important step toward launching your career,” McCarthy said. “They provide an opportunity to build on what you have learned in the classroom, and often can lead to a job offer.” At Ferris, for example, 88 percent of the students who completed internships received job offers directly related to that experience. “The national average is 53 percent for job offers related to internship experiences, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) statistics,” she said.

Ira R. Weiss, dean of NC State's College of Management, has set a goal for all undergraduate students to have at least one internship or substantive applied, ‘real world’ work experience in their field of study during their undergraduate years at the college.

“Most students in our MBA and Master of Accounting programs already are at this level,” he said. “We would like to see our undergraduates benefit from similar experiences, and are very pleased that Brendalee is joining the Undergraduate Programs staff to help us achieve this goal.”

While at Ferris State University, McCarthy also served as orientation and registration advisor and taught computer information systems. She is an entrepreneur and was co-owner, testing and assessment director, and instructional designer for Realtime Seminars, in Grand Rapids. She also was program director and assistant professor in computer information systems at Davenport University in Grand Rapids, Mich., and program coordinator and instructor in computer information systems at Ferris State University

McCarthy joins the college’s career resources team which includes Linda Taylor, director of career resources working primarily with the MBA program; Shelly Hoover-Plonk, assistant director of career resources, and Stephanie Borrego, MBA recruiting coordinator; Katherine Hansen, assistant director of career services for the college’s Master of Accounting (MAC) Program; and Tamah Morant, assistant director of the Graduate Economics Program offered jointly by the College of Management and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.