The career advantage at BGSU: Industry partnerships connect students and employers

Internships, co-ops and hands-on experiences connect employers with career-ready students while creating pathways to full-time employment

While Bowling Green State University students spend significant time in the classroom as they build a solid education-based foundation for their futures, many also benefit from the University’s increasingly proactive role in providing the bridge that connects students’ job aspirations with the career fields they target.

Facilitating a resolution to that often frustrating “You need experience, but how do you get experience?” conundrum is one of the core missions of Bowling Green and specifically its Kuhlin Career Hub.

Internships, co-op experiences and hands-on career experiences are an essential part of a BGSU student’s academic journey and among the reasons the University is top-ranked for its commitment to career preparation.

“We know a student who does an internship in college has a clear advantage in finding that first step in their career, so we have made providing the opportunity for that connection a very high priority,” said Steve Russell, BGSU’s chief partnership officer.

Russell added that many of the businesses and industry partners BGSU has established long-term relationships with to facilitate internship connections are often seeking more than temporary or summer help, which further underscores the importance of these real-world experiences.

“Often, the expectation now is that the intern is going to come on board and add value to the company,” Russell said. The internships and co-op experiences of BGSU students often can be extended to on-the-job interviews or auditions.

“We want to provide real value to the businesses and industries that partner with us, and we are highly motivated by the outcomes of these partnerships," he said. "We want them to see that it is easier to get great talent right here, and if we do this right, these companies see a huge return on their investment when they take on Bowling Green interns. But the success always drives back to our students.”

Jeff Schaaf, vice president for talent strategy and signature events for the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce, said the pipeline connecting the chamber with BGSU students has clearly been a mutually beneficial relationship. The chamber serves as a conduit to myriad opportunities with businesses in the region.

“Working with the University has absolutely helped the chamber,” Schaaf said. “Every intern has to start at some point – they have to take what they learn in the classroom and then apply that in the workplace. This is important to the chamber, since we focus on identifying talent and then keeping it in the region.”

Abby Lewis, talent acquisition manager for The Andersons, Inc., a locally based giant in supplying products and services in the agribusiness sector, said bringing in BGSU students loaded with potential is an important part of her work in human resources.

“We view our relationship with Bowling Green as an investment in these students, and we are excited to bring them in and show them the many career paths available – we’re not just about agriculture – we also are interested in finance majors, information systems majors, and many others,” said Lewis, a BGSU alum.

“We are building an awareness of the career opportunities and building a talent pipeline through this relationship.”

BGSU’s broad range of career coaching services and connections have assisted a multitude of students in gaining internships and co-op positions that have served as the springboard into their chosen career fields.

For 2025 graduate Tim Pozda, an engineering co-op position with Johns Manville provided experience that bolstered his resume and helped him land a post with GROB, Inc., an Ohio-based company engaged in the development and manufacture of equipment and machine tools.

While interning at Johns Manville, Pozda said it was “very encouraging to see the level of trust” industry placed “in my education and my ability to do the job. I felt like my classes had really set me up for success. It is almost shocking how well prepared you are going into these co-op positions.”

Lindsey Berschbach, another 2025 graduate who studied pre-dentistry, found that BGSU’s connections helped her gain access to area dental offices. Berschbach said the “early exposure to the work inside the dental office helped me see that this is actually what I want to do in my career. Observing all of this – you can’t study that kind of thing. You have to be there in person.”

The Kuhlin Career Hub, one of the University’s primary forces in connecting employers with talented undergraduate students, will host the BGSU Career EXPO in September in the Lenhart Grand Ballroom of the Bowen-Thompson Student Union. The event is open to all BGSU students and alumni.

Russell said the Kuhlin Career Hub works closely with the Office of Industry Partnerships to meet the talent acquisition needs of Bowling Green's partners. He stressed the importance of having a newly formed Office of Industry Partnerships to intentionally build deep industry connections that create unique opportunities for students.

“We have a culture of students willing to work hard,” he said. “I think what differentiates us is that we have these robust partnerships that enable our students to find the right places to put in the work."