What would it look like if every college student—not just the ones who knew to ask, or had the time, or could afford to go unpaid—actually got a meaningful work-based learning experience before graduation?

That's not a hypothetical at ODU. It's the mandate.

In this episode of the Career Everywhere Podcast, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Dr. Barbara Blake, Chief Internship Officer and Executive Director of the Monarch Internship & Co-Op Office at Old Dominion University, for the first installment of a two-part conversation.

The Monarch Internship & Co-Op Office doesn't run career fairs. It doesn't do resume workshops. It has one job: make sure every ODU student—regardless of major, college, or background—has a work-based learning experience before they walk across the stage. That singular focus is what sets it apart from ODU's traditional career center, and from most career services models entirely.

That focus is also by design. ODU is a minority-serving institution with high Pell and first-gen populations and a large military-connected community—students who are statistically less likely to complete internships and who face real barriers to access, from transportation to professional attire to the simple reality of not being able to afford to work for free. Barbara built her office around the belief that those barriers are solvable, and that solving them requires dedicated infrastructure, not just good intentions.

In part one, Barbara and Meredith dig into how the office came to be, how it sits within ODU's broader ecosystem alongside the Center for Career and Leadership Development, and how four distinct pathways—for-credit internship courses, a free zero-credit co-curricular course, prior learning assessment, and prior internship recognition—are making sure work-based learning is accessible, documented, and on the transcript where employers can see it.

Stay tuned for part two, dropping later in July, where Barbara and Meredith get into the office's biggest wins so far, what their funding strategy looks like, how they address challenges around unpaid internships, and what’s next for the office. 

Key takeaways:

• Placing internships in Academic Affairs changes everything. The Monarch Internship & Co-Op Office reports to the Provost—a deliberate choice that signals internships are part of the learning journey, not an optional add-on. Barbara says she wouldn't have taken the job if it had been placed anywhere else.
• One focus. One job. Unlike traditional career centers, which carry a wide range of responsibilities, the Monarch Internship & Co-Op Office has a single mandate: help every ODU student get a meaningful work-based learning experience. That clarity of purpose is both a strategy and a cultural statement.
• Four pathways make work-based learning accessible to more students. For-credit internship courses, a free zero-credit co-curricular course, prior learning assessment, and prior internship recognition give students multiple ways to have their experiences acknowledged.
• Getting it on the transcript is the goal. Barbara's office treats the transcript as the primary deliverable. When graduates send transcripts to employers, having an internship listed there becomes a conversation starter—and a differentiator. Several ODU graduates have already reported that their transcript note was the first thing an interviewer brought up.
• You have to change the culture before you can change the numbers. The office's first priority wasn't programming—it was shifting campus-wide language from "if" students do an internship to "when." That required buy-in from the president, the provost, faculty, and staff, and Barbara credits top-down institutional commitment as foundational to the office's early success.
• Capturing invisible internships matters. Many students are already doing internships that their institutions don't know about. ODU's free co-curricular course has documented over 500 internships that would otherwise have gone unrecognized—along with the employers and students behind them.
• High touch isn't just a nice-to-have for this population. ODU serves high Pell, high first-gen, and military-connected students who need real guidance, not just a job board. Barbara describes an approach that feels more like a human resources office than a traditional career center—open Monday through Friday, no remote work, and ready to help students think through the actual logistics of getting an internship, from financial constraints to geography to timing.

About the guest:

Dr. Barbara Blake is the Chief Internship Officer and Executive Director of the Monarch Internship & Co-Op Office at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. An economist by training, she has taught economics for over 20 years, conducted economic research for NATO, worked in the corporate world for companies like Hanes Mexico, and owned her own consulting business. Since launching the Monarch Internship & Co-Op Office in July 2023, her team has secured $8.5 million in funding from more than 20 funders and built one of the most distinctive experiential learning models in higher education. Dr. Blake holds a master's degree from the University of Leeds and has published and presented original economic research in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Resources from the episode:

• Dr. Blake's LinkedIn profile
• Monarch Internship & Co-Op Office at ODU
• Stay tuned for part two of this conversation, dropping later in July, for more on the internship office’s biggest wins so far, what their funding strategy looks like, how they address challenges around unpaid internships, and what’s next for the office. 

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