The spring sunshine may be blocked out by heaps of snow, but registration season is upon us. Instead of the traditional classroom experience, consider these campus-run programs for credit instead:

The Dean’s Team

The Dean’s Team is a two-credit internship program that brings a wide range of services to the Binghamton University student body.

“For a lot of people around our office, this is the first group they think of when they want student opinions,” said Morgan Appel, a program coordinator with the Dean of Students Office.

The program includes a class that meets an hour per week. The meeting time is designed to work around interns’ schedules. Interns also regularly attend conferences with presenters from across campus.

“Next week the vice president of student affairs, Brian Rose, is coming in to talk about how the budget works,” Appel said. “Here’s the inside scoop on how things work.”

Because there are currently 11 Dean’s Team members, students participate on a much more personal level than they might in a larger group. Last semester, members attended a dinner held at Dean of Students April Thompson’s home.

“This is a chance to get to know administrators as people,” Appel said.

The deadline to apply for the Dean’s Team internship next semester is Friday, April 11. The application is available on B-Engaged.

The Road Map

The Road Map Student Task Force is a presidential internship offered for two graded credits. Students develop a project of their choosing and persuade the administration to implement it.

“The interns are broken up into several teams, usually made up of about five to six people,” said Chiara Zaccheo, a senior double-majoring in geography and environmental studies. “I’m on the Business Manual team — we are creating a manual for Binghamton students interested in startups.”

Groups meet with President Harvey Stenger four times throughout the semester to keep track of their progress. The application for this program is not yet available.

Teaching Assistant

Finally, if you want to see the classroom from a new perspective, consider becoming a teaching assistant. In addition to taking attendance and holding office hours, TAs often get to try their hand at planning and conducting lessons themselves.

May Yagual, a sophomore majoring in electrical engineering, decided to become a TA for an intermediate Spanish course taught by professor Olga Martin.

“I usually do a lot of group study, and I realized I liked teaching other people,” Yagual said.

Many departments allow you to become a TA for two to four credits and determine your workload accordingly. Students usually become TAs for courses they have already taken and enjoyed, or in subjects in which they have a firm knowledge base. This is an ideal opportunity to get a taste of a career in education, and to get to know faculty members on a more personal level.

“You kind of bond with the professor you TA for,” Yagual said. “[Professor Martin] told me she was a mechanical engineer in Venezuela and she worked for Lockheed Martin.”

In order to become a TA, contact the professor for the course you have in mind and visit the department through which it’s offered to pick up the appropriate forms.