In the Love Field headquarters of Dallas- based Southwest Airlines, several dozen Paul Quinn College students and administrators tour the facility chatting with some airline employees guiding them.
The college has been here before–the two partnered to help Paul Quinn’s basketball team fly free to games on the way to a national championship.
But today the students are here to learn about opportunities with the company. Paul Quinn is what’s known as a work college – meaning students hold jobs while also taking classes full time. The money helps cover tuition, fees and living expenses while reducing (long-term) college debt.
Southwest, as the school’s official airline takes on selected students as paid interns, including Curtis Ferguson. When he started at Paul Quinn in 2021, his future was unclear.
“I just needed something to grasp onto. I didn't have a plan,” said Ferguson, who’s now 23. “Honestly, I didn't have a plan.”
Part of Paul Quinn’s plan means every student works. Ferguson started interning at Southwest a year before he graduated.
“They gave me the opportunity to sit with different departments outside of their own; the business-to-business office, customer service agency,” Ferguson said. “Not many internships, not many people, would do that. They want to keep you to themselves. But they gave me the opportunity to learn. Like, ‘Hey, this might not be for you, but this might.’”
Ferguson was eventually hired by Southwest as a flight crew scheduler, and he also mentors Paul Quinn students.
Paul Quinn became a work college in 2017.It’sone of 10 in the country, and the only urban work college campus. It partners with nearly two dozen companies, including Toyota, Texas Trust Credit Union, FedEx, NTT Data and Target.
Getting hired where you intern doesn’t always happen, but getting hired because you interned often does, said Joshua Kahn, associate director of research and public policy with the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
“Paid interns get more job offers and higher starting salary than their non-intern peers,” he said. “Right out of the gate there, that's a pretty big benefit of engaging in internships.”
Abilene, Texas native John Michael Albarado knew by 8th or 9th grade he wanted to be a financial advisor, when other teens may have had no idea what that was. At that age, most kids might typically dream of playing pro sports. Albarado did that too.
“I'm a big soccer guy, and so I actually got a scholarship to play at a small school in Kansas,” Albarado said.
But after a year, Albarado switched to Paul Quinn to pursue his earlier financial dream.
“Sometimes we have to make real- life decisions based on what we know in ourselves,” Albarado said. “ And I knew I wasn't going to be a professional soccer player as much as I wanted to, and I dreamt of it. And I decided to transfer from my school.”
Albarado chose Paul Quinn because of its work program. He could pursue his college dream even though he came from a low-income family; his dad was in jail while his mom worked to raise him and his two siblings. Albarado interned at JPMorgan Chase as a student, and got hired full-time by the bank upon graduation.
Paul Quinn College President, Michael Sorrell, said students like Albarado are a big reason the school’s a work college. It gives them a leg up in one of the toughest job markets in years.
“Our students at commencement, generally every year...somewhere between 70% and 75%,-they have jobs at commencement,” Sorrell said. “Not six months after commencement…While they are sitting there, they have employment.”
As Paul Quinn president for 19 years, Sorrell said not only is college debt at a work college generally lower, but job options increase.
“When I arrived, students weren't going to work at JPMorgan Chase,” Sorrell said. “They weren't going to work at Wells Fargo. They weren't going to work as regularly at Southwest Airlines.”
Now, Sorrell said, they are.
Josh Kahn with NACE said more and more colleges are seeing the benefits of internships, and the demand is high.
“The supply cannot meet the demand,” Kahn said.
As a result, he said colleges are figuring out how to reform work-study programs already in place that employ students in cafeterias, libraries and dormitories.
“Colleges have realized that is a big opportunity where students are already working,” he said. “They're already getting paid in these roles. And so now they're taking the opportunity to weave in more career development thinking, career development planning.”
Kahn said it’s not turning them into work colleges, but it might help supply that growing demand for employee job training, while giving graduates even greater appeal to employers.
Bill Zeeble is KERA’s education reporter. Got a tip? Email Bill at bzeeble@kera.org. You can follow him on X @bzeeble.
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