Insiders Talk Internships
According to U.S. News & World Report, a college degree used to be your passport to a job, but today, “undergraduates who leave school armed with only a degree” are not as well equipped as those who graduate with internships under their belts. In today’s job market, internships have become a “near necessity,” said the report.
On Wednesday, Nov. 25, RIC’s Career Development Center will hold its annual Internship Showcase from noon to 2 p.m. in the Student Union Ballroom, where students will share their internship experiences with other students. The goal is to get more students involved in internship opportunities.
The following students are currently involved in internships and will be among those present at the showcase on Wednesday.
Louisa D’Ovidio, a junior, is also equipping herself with training that can only come from working on the job. She interns at a nonprofit called ResilientKids. A political science major with a minor in communications, D’Ovidio’s job interest is the nonprofit sector – either working for a nonprofit or running one herself.
She wants to tackle problems that affect children and youth, such as “high levels of stress brought about by low socio-economic status, discrimination, developmental delays and disabilities.” Moreover, she wants to tackle these problems at the structural level, correcting the systems that are currently in place.
ResilientKids partners with local schools to provide mindfulness practices to schoolchildren to help reduce stress levels and behaviors in children that interfere with learning. D’Ovidio said interning at ResilientKids has allowed her to experience first-hand some of the roadblocks nonprofits face in carrying out their mission.
“Much of political science is about figuring out how a system works and being able to operate within that system to further the causes that you find important,” she said. “Much of the work at ResilientKids involves trying to get support from school systems, political leaders and education boards to support the programming and mission.”
D’Ovidio can now tell a potential nonprofit employer that she’s had experience in the trenches of a nonprofit.
Internships equipped senior Jacob Conklin with entry-level skills required by most employers in his field. He is a public history major interning at two museums: the Pettaquamscutt Historical Society in South Kingston and Hearthside House in Lincoln. At Pettaquamscutt he served as a public programs intern during the summer and is now a public outreach intern. At Hearthside he is an educational development intern.
Conklin will leave these internships with museum program development experience; he’ll have experience designing lesson plans for elementary, middle and high school students who visit the museum on field trips; he’ll have library science experience cataloguing a collection of over 300 holdings; and he has been trained in PastPerfect museum software.
Seniors Kevin Barbosa and Nilanda Sutoummalee are in internships this fall to explore potential career paths. When Barbosa enrolled at RIC he knew that he enjoyed working with numbers but he wasn’t sure how to match his knack for math with a career. First he pursued a high school teaching degree; then he considered teaching math at the college level. Finally he settled on a degree in accounting.
This fall he began interning at Hasbro, working alongside professional tax accountants, and now feels confident about the career choice he made. “I know now that I can do the work and do it well,” he said. “I don’t have to wonder when I graduate if I can be successful.”
Also trying careers on for size is Sutoummalee. A communications major, Sutoummalee isn’t sure if she wants to work behind the camera or in front of the camera. “My passion is storytelling,” she said. “I’m just trying to find the right medium in which to use that passion.”
Though she has been an unpaid extra in two films, all of her internships have been behind the camera.
Currently she works at the R.I. Film & TV Office. Her responsibilities include processing location permits and tax deductibles for filmmakers and researching local casting crews, rental companies and other vendors to support filmmakers.
She also interned at the Rhode Island International Film Festival, where her work included securing donations from sponsors, and at Rhode Island PBS she transcribed shows for closed captioning and managed the teleprompter, among other duties.
Demetria Moran, assistant director of counseling and employer relations at RIC’s Career Development Center, encourages all RIC students to explore careers as early as sophomore year. Payment is in job readiness.