Become an Industry Partner

The School of Fashion at Kent State University is looking forward to another great year. We really appreciate your interest in partnering with us and your efforts in supporting our students during this time. 

To make sure our interns and partner companies have a positive, consistent experience, we’ve introduced new processes. To support your recruiting efforts for Summer 2021 and the academic year 2021/2022, please follow this link to let us know what you’re looking for in an intern(s) for your company/organization. We’ll post this information on the School of Fashion’s Listserv. The more information you can give us, the better, as we’ll use this to help us with our future programming efforts. 

We’ve also introduced remote internships to our courses. If you’d like to find a fully remote or hybrid intern for your organization’s experience, please get in touch.  

We want to keep our students, and your staff safe, so if you’re hosting an onsite internship, please make sure you’re following the state Covid-19 directive and CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines. If our students choose to continue in-person at their internship, we’d like to remind them they’re doing so at their own discretion. 

Before taking part in face-to-face activities at your organization, it’s important the following conditions are met:

• Students must only take part in face-to-face activities if they feel comfortable. All face-to-face participation must be voluntary. 
• Participation has to meet the internship/coop/practicum requirements.
• Participation has to follow CDC and state guidelines on matters such as face coverings, social distancing and stay at home orders.

We know that this unpredictable situation can impact your organization as well. To make things easier, we’ve put together the following recommendations for all Kent State students who are currently completing, or are interested in, an internship for course credit.

• Be flexible about changes to your work environment, project scope changes, and other unexpected requests. No matter what is thrown your way, stay focused on the learning goals and outcomes you’ve developed for your course credit.
• If possible, we recommend you continue your internship remotely. Make sure you’re being directed by your supervisor and stay in regular communication. Also, check out the organization’s current guidelines for work and attendance, which will have been set out in your employment agreement and academic course credit conditions.
• Think about simulated experiences and alternative work assignments that can help you reach your learning goals. These may be helpful options if your employer/host is forced to cancel your internship.
• Keep up regular communication (phone calls, emails, video conferences) with your instructor, supervisor and/or program coordinator. This will give you plenty of chances to discuss any upcoming changes or concerns you have.

  You can find out more about our University's Covid-19 updates here: https://www.kent.edu/coronavirus.

If you have any questions, feel free to send an email to Hillary Stone at hstone1@kent.edu or call on 216-287-1008.