[037] Students land jobs quickly in MTSU master’s internship program

MURFREESBORO — MTSU graduate student Jeremy Posey will miss the university’s Saturday, Aug. 8, commencement. He’s moving his wife and three sons to Michigan.

A job opportunity with Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Fiat Chrysler Automobiles — one that presented itself because of both his skillset and his participation in the MTSU Master of Science in Professional Science program — is taking him North to be a powertrain controls engineer.

The program, commonly called professional science masters or PSM, is an award-winning two-year master’s degree in the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM disciplines that equips students for work in public and private business and academia.

Twenty-three other graduate students joined Posey, 33, a native of Adairville, Kentucky, in the MSPS internship presentations Aug. 6 in the Science Building.

The concentrations include biostatistics, health care informatics, geosciences, engineering management, actuarial science, biotechnology and business education.

Posey, who has served as director of the engineering technology Experimental Vehicles Program for two years, was interviewed by his new employer in April while MTSU was competing in the Formula Hybrid event in New Hampshire. He also interviewed with companies in Florida and Memphis, Tennessee.

“Rather than being in manufacturing, I’ll be involved in design and calibrating — new product development for new vehicles,” Posey said.

Posey learned a lot in the professional science master’s program, “most of which I’ll be able to apply pretty quickly in my job,” he said.

“I learned a lot on the business side,” he added. “The engineering side, there were things I already was exposed to. The business side was all new to me.” Business areas included managerial, communication, leadership, accounting and legal issues for managers.

Posey, wife Jennifer, and sons Jeremy, 10, Gabriel, 8, and Hunter, 7 months, left Friday, Aug. 7, for Clarkston, Michigan, where they will live.

Saeed Foroudastan, the MSPS director, said this summer’s participants are the largest group to date. All must complete a minimum of 250 hours with the company where they are interning.

“This program is very successful,” Foroudastan said. “We now graduate more than 60 students a year. We need to do a lot of recruiting. They come in, get a degree in two years or less, have a job and go to work.”

Generally, “most graduate and get a job right away and make twice the money they would’ve gotten with a Bachelor of Science degree,” Foroudastan said. He adds that 70 percent receive a job offer at the place of their internship.

To learn more, call 615-494-7618, email Saeed.Foroudastan@mtsu.edu or visit http://www.mtsu.edu/msps/about.php.