Today was my first day at my internship. I work under the Member Experience Director and I am a Member Experience Coordinator. I work for the University Club at Virginia Tech that is open to the VT community. Most of the members are alumni of VT or family members of VT students that live near the area. Some of my tasks as an intern are helping the director plan and executing events, setting up for events, organizing menus, etc. The primary focus is football. If you know VT, you know that football is a BIG DEAL here.
When I applied for this job, I was didn’t think I was going to get it 1) I am a minority 2) I am a first-generation. As a first generation student who comes from parents who were born outside the US, it’s hard to have that motivation from your parents. My parents don’t know what an internship, they barely know what my major is. Of course, you know the deal, my parents wanted me to be a nurse or doctor because they don’t know much about any other career. However, I applied randomly when a flier went out. On the day of my interview, I was nervous, but I GOT THE INTERNSHIP!
Resuming from the background, like I mentioned, today was my first day. I already set up for an event named Women Who Lunch and I also did reorganized menus for the events Friday Night Live and The Brunch Pail (both events are due to the football game on Saturday). I loved doing this because this is sort of what I want to do in the future. I want to be the experience/fundraising/event director of some organization and being the coordinator and intern of the experience director is AMAZING!
I am sharing this on here because as a first-gen you sometimes don’t think you will get a position because you don’t have that experience or sometimes the support. For example, some non first-gen students, may even have parents who work in firms or hospital, but you pushing to one day be that parent or adult. My tips are applying when you get the chance, perfect your resume/ cover letter, and on the day on the interview DRESS TO IMPRESS and make a great first impression!