Just think, in a couple of months I’ll be a junior at Illinois Wesleyan! Wow! I can’t believe it. It’s been a tough, yet satisfying, road. As a junior or a senior your university will probably expect you to go out of your comfort zone and comfort some variation of the real world. How is this done? Well, through intern and externships. An internship is usually where an individual, usually a student, goes to an organization and participates as if he is apart of that work team. This looks differently for a lot of students, but trust me– it’s important. But why? It’s important because it puts you in real life situations. I heard you want to be a nurse! Great, scrub in and help with that boil on that mans back! Or how about business? Superb, I’ll introduce you to my boyfriend at State Farm Insurance– State Farm loves to give internships! But how about me? A Sociology and Religious Studies double major? It turns out that I secured an internship with ACM- Associated Colleges of the Midwest- in their Urban Studies program. What that means is I’ll be in Chicago in the fall taking classes, through my university, and participating in a sixteen-week internship where we get to know the citizens and problems of Chicago. Sweet, huh?
It took a long time for me to get this internship. I had to send in an application, talk to a representative, meet with the program coordinator at my university and make sure everything was in order for this internship? What about when I return? Will I still be a student here? What about my scholarships? Will my classes transfer? And fortunately for the answer to all those questions was ‘yes.’ Wow, that wasn’t so bad.
Maybe I can do this. And so you know what, so can you! Getting an internship is hard, and if you’re like me, you’re scared to death of the real world, but it’s worth it. All that experience you are going to gain is so important to your career and who you will become in the future.
Take it in stride. If you don’t know what you want to do yet, check our your campus’s class directory– I’m sure you’ll find something to spark your interest.