GoalQuest today announced that 11 student interns had successfully participated in its first on-site summer internship program at its corporate headquarters in New York City. Nine of the 11 students, who are enrolled at several of the company's client schools, earned the opportunity to intern at GoalQuest by promoting the FYRe™ retention program at their respective institutions. In addition to the summer participants, GoalQuest worked with interns from schools across the country in the fall and spring semesters.

The GoalQuest-designed internship curriculum requires that interns complete projects on their home campuses during the academic year. For example, interns may serve as moderators in UPeers™ (the company's e-community program), design promotional materials such as flyers and t-shirts, write press releases and conduct campus focus groups. The nine students who competed for the NYC leg of the internship lived in a SoHo apartment and walked to the company's Broadway offices each morning. These students also collaborated on a video project, available on a website devoted to the 2007 internship.

	GoalQuest Internship Overview GoalQuest 2007 Summer Internship Program Website

"My experience in New York has been invaluable," said Joseph Coffield, a senior majoring in business marketing at Valdosta State University. "I have learned more in an eight-week span than I did during any other experience I've ever had."

"GoalQuest's FYRe module has been an integral part of our freshman retention program," said Dr. Kurt J. Keppler, vice president for student affairs at Valdosta State University. "A major key to its success has been the utilization of student interns. The enthusiasm of our three interns has provided contagious enthusiasm to the faculty involved with the program as well as our targeted new students. The interns' ability to create interest in the various contests and surveys has led to increased participation and awareness on campus."

According to Leslie Eberhardt-Dumas, a senior and marketing major at the University of West Georgia, "I always wanted to work in a big city for part of my life, but I never really thought I would. I have now worked and lived in New York a lot sooner than I ever thought, and that has opened the door to many other opportunities."

"Introducing interns into our GoalQuest FYRe initiative has yielded great returns," said Mary Kay Aston, assistant provost for student services at the University of Scranton. "Among their many contributions, they helped us better promote our program and engage fellow students on a grassroots, student-to-student level. Their work saved us time and resources-and has indeed truly helped make our FYRe program a success. When we ran the program without our interns, I'd classify our program as successful. With the interns, I'd say this initiative was outstanding."

Joey Kirk, a senior business administration major at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, added "I have gained a great deal of confidence and now feel prepared to keep up with the fast paced corporate world. In addition, learning and growing in such a multi-cultural environment has given me a wonderful appreciation of diversity."

GoalQuest now offers an internship program to students—both undergraduate and graduate—at schools using its FYRe program. The company is also developing an EYOp™ (Enrollment Yield Optimization) internship program launching this fall. The company's marketing department works with each client to set up the program, which may be given for academic or experience-based credit.