State Farm Insurance agent Manny Miranda, a Florida International University alum and 2017 FIU Torch Award recipient, has created an internship incubator program that will be implemented by the FIU College of Business and the FIU Sales Society.
He calls it the FIU value proposition to South Florida businesses, and it has the potential to significantly and permanently improve how businesses in South Florida recruit top talent coming out of the university every semester.
“One of the things that is unique about FIU is the fact that most of us graduate and stay in South Florida,” he said. “It’s a whole different dynamic. FIU graduates are a major component of South Florida’s economy and I believe the internship incubator program presents local businesses with the opportunity to hire and retain FIU graduates before they are hired by employers from around the world.”
Miranda has committed his own money, which State Farm’s corporate headquarters has matched, dollar for dollar. The money raised will fund paid internships for two to three FIU juniors and seniors on sales and marketing tracks. Those students will be tasked with convincing local businesses to take on as paid interns other FIU juniors and seniors seeking degrees related to their industry.
“We are creating this incubator for one key reason — to help students help other students,” said John Nykolaiszyn, director of the College of Business’ Career Management Services office.
Interns will be embedded in the career services office, where they will be taken through the sales cycle as part of their training. The first set of interns has been identified, and the program was expected to begin the week of Mar. 27.
“The FIU graduate has a tremendous work ethic and often is bilingual,” Miranda said. “There are companies who come from all over the world to hire those students. But our economy in South Florida is bilingual, so before those companies can get to those students, businesses in South Florida can take a look at them, give them a chance and have first option at hiring them.”
For students coming out of college, having the extra experience of an internship to put on their resumes would provide them with a crucial leg up on their competition. And for FIU, which is evaluated by the State of Florida, based in part on how well its graduates perform in the job market, the internship incubator would doubly serve in helping the school meet the goals of its FIUBeyondPossible 2020 strategic plan and continue to receive future funding.
“Our goal is to help firms build their internship programs, increasing the number of internship postings and internship placements,” Nykolaiszyn said. “This will lead to more job postings and job placements.”
Miranda added, “So many FIU graduates are now in leadership positions throughout our community, and finding quality employees is becoming increasingly difficult. I think if we were to pull together, what we could accomplish in South Florida would be amazing.”
For more information about the internship incubator program at FIU’s College of Business or to hire an FIU Business intern, contact Career Management Services at 305-348-7396 or by email at CMS@fiu.edu.
Well done good and faithful alum!
Ralph Geronimo