Instead of relaxing during the summer months, students are encouraged to transform their summer into work experience by test driving a job in their field of interest.The experiential education division of Career Services held a summer work experience workshop as part of “Experiential Education”  week on Wednesday evening to emphasize the importance of having work experience.”Just because you have a degree does not mean you will get a job,” said Rashanda Booker, experiential education coordinator. “There are plenty of people with experience and a degree who cannot find jobs.”The experiential education division seeks to give students the necessary tools to compete in the job market. Students are encouraged to gain experience thorough internships, volunteerism, part-time and full-time jobs. All jobs should have value and transferable skills. Booker said many students don’t realize the importance of getting jobs early. Having internships is a great way for students to find out what they want to do — or don’t want to do — through experience.This division provides a variety of opportunities for students, including helping students structure resumes, holding mock interviews and teaching students how to conduct themselves during an interview.”Students have to be able to articulate how and who they are in an interview,” Booker said. “A lot of students don’t know how to be personable. These are things we can address.”Besides learning about the importance of having work experience, students were informed about a variety of places to find internship and volunteering information including studentjobs.gov and internships-usa.com. Dawn Monahan, anthropology junior, said though she knew a lot of information from her human research education class, she found the workshop helpful.”I’ve learned a lot here that I didn’t know,” Monahan said. “I’ll definitely use the federal job Web site they gave us because I want to work for the government.”—-Contact Alice Womble [email protected]