BOISE STATE PROGRAM GIVES STUDENTS ACADEMIC CREDIT AND A PAYCHECK

The Career Accelerator Program turns students’ unpaid internships to paid and for-credit opportunities

Olivia Campbell | Staff Writer | news@stumedia.boisestate.edu

Finishing its first year at Boise State, the Career Accelerator Program (CAP) is providing students with the skills and connections to receive payment for otherwise unpaid off-campus internship opportunities.

This comes at a good time for students seeking a paycheck with their otherwise unpaid job, as Boise’s cost of living currently sits 7% higher than the national average, according to Pay Scale, a company that monitors market trends.

Despite these rising costs, 40% of interns nationwide report being unpaid, according to a 2021 study by The National Association of Colleges and Employers.

For many students entering their junior or senior year, an internship credit is one class that still needs to be checked off the degree tracker. Department internship coordinators and Career Services can connect students with internships in their field of study.

The Idaho Workforce Development Council’s CAP provides supplemental income of up to $1,500 per semester for Boise State students enrolled in an unpaid internship for academic credit.

According to an email shared with program participants from Rick Van Santen, the associate director of experiential learning, the grant serves two purposes: to provide a curriculum that supports students’ career development and to make internships accessible in cases where the employer cannot pay.

The $500 per credit students receive comes from the state of Idaho, specifically the Idaho Workforce Development Council. The council works to provide public outreach that improves the “quality of and access to workforce education” in Idaho, according to Gov. Brad Little’s Executive Order NO.2019-08.

“Sometimes the stumbling block is students not having the time to pick up a job without being paid,” Bod Reinhardt, professor and internship coordinator for the history department told The Arbiter. “The $500 per credit stipend is a great way of incentivizing and drawing attention to the value of an internship.”

The hourly pay works out to $11 with CAP, beating the $10 per hour that sophomore and graphic design major Sasha White received as a ‘graphic design intern’ for Boise State’s student media in Spring

2022.

“I think people are realizing that unpaid internships aren’t working for college students,” White said.

The number of students taking advantage of CAP has continued to grow during its first year on campus. The program currently supports 52 students and will continue to fund internships through the fall 2024 semester, according to Van Santen.

However, the program is not available to every student. The caveat comes to what academic department a student is in. Participating departments in the CAP program are the media, communications, political science, history, world languages, school of public service, biological sciences, geological sciences and English departments.

“We are piloting this and slowly adding more faculty members,” Van Santen said. “This isn’t open to anyone at Boise State to apply. It works through academic departments to support their internships for good academic credit experiences.”

The deadline to register a qualifying internship for credit is Feb. 16 for those looking to fulfill their degree’s internship requirement and have a spot on the grant’s payroll.

Hobbies To Help Cope With Stress

These hobbies can help relieve stress and improve overall well being

Kiyah Henson | Opinion Editor | opinion@stumedia.boisestate.edu

Being a student is tough enough in itself. It’s common knowledge that many, just like myself, have jobs and other obligations on top of it. This can make the balance between work and a social life difficult to maintain, and can often feel overwhelming. Viewers were promised a sequel, but as years passed, hope was lost.

Finding a healthy outlet to release the built-up stress and frustration that comes with this is extremely important. Over the years, I’ve found a few different ways to cope with stress in a healthy way and would like to share for those who haven’t found something that works for them just yet.

Music

Music has a number of health benefits tied to it. An article from John Hopkins Medicine states that “listening to music can reduce anxiety, blood pressure, and pain as well as improve sleep quality, mood, mental alertness, and memory.”

Music has even been proven to trigger the production of dopamine in our bodies!

There are many different ways to use music as a tool to help with relieving stress. For some, just listening to their favorite songs is enough to relax them and bring them to a more positive or comforted state.

For those who would like to turn music into an activity, there are a number of ways to get involved. Curating playlists is a great way to focus your attention to dividing certain songs into themed playlists for yourself and others to enjoy.

This option is a bit more involved, but learning to play an instrument is a wonderful way to channel creativity into art and express it in a new way.

For Apple users, Garageband is a free tool to create music from your iPhone or other Apple devices. There are also alternatives to Garageband for those without access such as BandLab and Walk Band.

I’ve played guitar for about two years, and songwriting has been more than helpful in allowing me to get my emotions, whether happy or sad, out of my system and take weight off my shoulders.

Journaling

I know this is one that everyone is constantly drilling, but journaling really lives up to its hype. According to an article from the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences, journaling has many benefits for students such as improvements to mental health, boosting self-confidence and improving emotional intelligence.

Journaling allows for thoughts and worries to be outwardly expressed and gives people the ability to sort through them and find the source of these emotions.

Along with being used as a place to rant, journaling can become an activity to practice writing positive affirmations and a place to organize ideas to help with setting goals.

Journaling is also a very accessible activity. People can journal in a notebook, on their phone, on a laptop or even on some scratch paper from the library. It is a place of no judgment and, in the long run, helps strengthen communication and writing skills.

Coloring

Sounds a bit childish, doesn’t it? Even so, coloring has many health benefits and helps to promote mindfulness and accidently coloring outside the lines from time to time will help you learn to accept imperfections.

According to an article from the Mayo Clinic Health System, coloring can help improve sleep and decrease things like body aches, heart rate and feelings of depression and anxiety.

One of the reasons I enjoy coloring so much is because I can also listen to my favorite podcast and learn about new things while doing so. I have found that I have the ability to listen with more focus when I have an activity, like coloring, to block out other thoughts and distractions.

Coloring books and basic art supplies like crayons or color pencils aren’t very expensive and can be found at places like the dollar store.

Coloring is the perfect activity for practicing being in the moment. It relaxes the brain and is a very low stakes activity where people are well within their right to make mistakes and be as creative as they want!

I hope that if you’re someone struggling with finding a way to relieve stress, you attempt one of these activities. If you’ve already tried them and felt they didn’t help, I hope that I have given a different perspective on them and you consider giving it another go.

MY TOP-5 FAVORITE 90S GRUNGE ALBUMS OF ALL TIME

Why artists like Nirvana and Pearl Jam are known as staples of grunge music

Kiyah Henson | Opinion Editor | opinion@stumedia.boisestate.edu

The grunge subgenre of rock rose to popularity in the mid-80s and quickly became a staple piece of the 90s. In particular, the city of Seattle fostered the growth of many of the most popular bands of this time, including Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Many of these bands have inspired me in my own journey as a musician, and I have grown to love their albums very deeply.

Here is the ranking of my top-five favorite grunge albums of the 90s:

1. Dirt – Alice in Chains

Starting off strong with Alice in Chains’ second studio album “Dirt,” released in 1992. This album is certified five times platinum along with tracks “Would?,” “Rooster,” “Them Bones” and “Down in a Hole,” who all earned certifications in August 2022.

In my eyes, this album represents the definition of what “grunge” sounds like.

Behind front man and lead singer Layne Staley is the perfect ensemble of Jerry Cantrell’s shockingly simple but catchy guitar riffs, Mike Starr’s deep rhythmic bass and Sean Kinny’s unmatched versatility on the drums.

A clear strong point for this album is the heavy and blunt lyricism and haunting melodies that focus on themes of addiction and depression. An example of this can be heard in “Dirt” where Layne sings, “I want to taste dirty, stinging pistol. In my mouth, on my tongue. I want you to scrape me from the walls.” Layne Staley’s soulful and emotionally filled vocals carry these messages with ease.

Not only does this album take the number one spot in this ranking, but I would argue that this is the greatest album of all time. For first timers, I recommend giving the song “Would?” a listen.

2. In Utero – Nirvana

What’s 90s grunge without a little Nirvana?

Best known for their hit songs “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Come As You Are,”

Nirvana have been a household name for many, and for good reason. The trio’s upbeat and ridiculous energy on and off the stage was something that drew many people in, including myself.

Nirvana’s third studio album, “In Utero,” released in 1993, was a perfect mix between the rawness of their earlier album, “Bleach,” and their more commercialized album, “Nevermind.”

In Utero was certified five time platinum in October 1996.

This album has a strong personality whose intense tracks are balanced out by its slower ones. Though guitarist and lead singer Kurt Cobain usually wrote very simple chord progressions, in this album there was more intricate plucking and his guitar solos were hard to replicate.

“Tourette’s” is a track I think most will enjoy, and for those not easily turned away from the controversy that surrounded it, “Rape me” is one to take a listen to.

3. Facelift – Alice in Chains

Alice in Chains, though one of the strongest grunge bands at the time, has always been underrated and overshadowed by more popular bands like Nirvana or Soundgarden. Despite this, “Facelift” went three time multi platinum, along with their best known song “Man in the Box.”

Their debut studio album, “Facelift,” released in 1990, has hints of the popular 80s metal sound and shows a much lighter and almost happier side of the band, while still staying true to their signature sound through the lyrics and vocal melodies.

If you’re willing to give them a chance, I recommend listening to “Put You Down.”

4. Live Through This – Hole

Hole, best known for their song “Celebrity Skin,” released their second studio album “Live Through This,” in 1994. This album went certified platinum in 1995 and became a staple in the 90s grunge era, especially when talking about women-fronted bands who were doing well at the time.

Many of the tracks combine soft melodic verses with heavy choruses giving Hole their edge. Bassist and backup singer Kristen Pfaff added touches of delicacy in her harmonies on top of front woman Courtney Love’s deeper and grittier vocal style to create this combination.

Hole is another grunge band with very simple guitar and bass riffs, but this didn’t hold them back in writing an album I would characterize as the epitome of female rage.

If this sounds like your cup of tea, give “Plump” a listen.

5. Ten – Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam’s first studio album, “Ten,” was released in 1991. This album is the home of many of their most popular songs such as “Alive” and “Even Flow,” and has done impressive numbers by becoming certified

13-time multi platinum in 2009.

Upon first listen, this album may seem to be a typical rock album, but like Alice in Chain’s “Dirt,” this album tackles themes like depression and suicide, which is a dark contrast to the instrumental’s brighter tone.

Eddie Vedder is one of the strongest vocalists from this era, not only in his range but his deep baritone vocals and clear tone in which he sang. Stone Gossard and Mike McCready’s soft and melodic lead guitar alongside a superb rhythm section consisting of bassist Jeff Ament and drummer Dave Krusen are the ingredients in the making of this ridiculously catchy album. “Jeremy” is a song that will sweep you off your feet in awe. Undoubtedly, it has its popularity for a reason.