by Dave O'Brien

Record-Courier Reporter

Kent -- Ann Womer Benjamin wants business and academia to offer internship opportunities for students to keep them in Northeast Ohio and, by doing so, drive the economic revitalization of the region.

Speaking at Kent State University during the computer science department's recent open house, the Aurora resident said academia, business and college students and graduates can benefit from each other's strengths in research, thought, experience and "all things that are important" to the regional economy.

The executive director of the Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education, she said higher education "can make significant contributions to the economics of a region" by encouraging internships and entrepreneurship, especially in the field of information technology.

And NOCHE, with its ClevelandIntern.net Web site -- soon to be NEOIntern.net -- is the "perfect organization for this time" in the state, said Womer Benjamin, a former four-term state representative.

But "it's always a struggle bringing business and academia together. Both groups are so busy at what they do," with academia dealing with its own set of requirements and graduating students and businesses dealing with "the bottom line" and being short on staff, she said.

Yet, "when you bring the practical together with the theoretical, it can create some lively discussions, let me tell you," Womer Benjamin said.

WHEN businesses offer internships to students, the students gain the needed experience to enter the workforce after graduation and businesses get warm bodies who help their bottom line, she added.

In the three years since NOCHE took over ClevelandIntern.net, 600 employers have offered 3,000 internships on the Web site.

More than 15,000 people visit the site each month, Womer Benjamin said.

Through this network, Fortune 500 companies and top Northeastern Ohio employers such as Westfield Insurance, the Goodrich Corp. and the J.M. Smucker Co. as well as potential new businesses see that there are new workers and available talent, she said.

"Students who have in-terned [in Northeast Ohio] are more likely to stay here," Womer Benjamin said. "Co-ops expand the job opportunities in a region."

An attorney by trade and former member of the Ohio House of Representatives who was director of the Ohio Department of Insurance under former Gov. Bob Taft, Womer Benjamin said she wants to stop talking about what to do to encourage business and academia to work together and do it.

"Having been in state government, I'm tired of talk. I'm ready to get things done," she said.

"It's up to all of us to help the hierarchy understand how important it is for colleges and universities to produce graduates with skills who are employable in the real world."

E-mail: dobrien@recordpub.com

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