While many soon-to-be college graduates may still be feverishly searching for that first full-time job, Asbury College senior Erin Owen isn’t one of them.

Owen, who will receive her bachelor’s degree in applied communications May 13, has already parlayed a spring semester internship in Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s office into a full-time job there. She has already begun her new post as assistant to the director of Gov. Fletcher’s Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives.

“I anticipated that the end of the semester would be a time where I would be fervently looking for a job. (Now) I am very pleased that (it) will not hold such endeavors,” Owen said. Owen is one of five Kentucky independent college students who this month are completing their semester-long state government internships in a program administered by the Association of Independent Kentucky Colleges and Universities. She joins Michelle Clark, a 2004 intern and Asbury alumna on Gov. Fletcher’s staff.

Until assuming her new full-time job, Owen spent the first three months of her internship in a variety of duties including the tracking of legislation before the General Assembly and preparing adopted legislation for Gov. Fletcher’s signature. “Her work as an intern was outstanding, and we are pleased to now have her as part of our staff,” said Stan Cave, Gov. Fletcher’s chief of staff. “(She) is a very smart and talented young lady who has a bright future ahead of her (and) I look forward to watching Erin learn and grow as a part of this administration,” Cave added.

Owen, in a recent interview, said that her AIKCU internship “truly changed my life.” Prior to applying for the internship, she added, she had no experience in either state government or administration and public policy. The help, advice and camaraderie from other Fletcher staff members, she said, have led her to consider a career in some aspect of public service. “That is (also) life changing for someone who would not have thought twice about such an undertaking in the past,” Owen said.

The Asbury senior is the daughter of Charlie and Sherry Vittitow of Eastwood, a Louisville suburb. She is married to Michael (Mitch) Owen, an Asbury student who plans to attend dental school.

The AIKCU internships are sponsored during the spring semester of each year and are open to applicants from the independent colleges who are juniors, seniors or graduate students. Students work 30 hours weekly and complete two academic seminars while in Frankfort. During even-numbered years interns work with members of Kentucky’s legislature. In alternate years they spend their semester working in state government executive agencies. The primary purpose of the program, held each spring semester since 2000, is to expose outstanding students to state government as a potential career choice.