Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
So, this is LEAP Symposium. This
is when students returning from summer internships, in almost every industry you could imagine,
organize and put on a conference about those experiences.
This summer, I was a drilling engineer intern at
ENV Natural Resources Management Corporation in Bakersfield, California.
I was awarded an opportunity, through
the McCulloch Center for Global Initiatives here at Mount Holyoke, to intern with the UNICEF
headquarters in New York City.
I returned to the Smithsonian, where I completed
an internship with the Smithsonian Libraries in the Office of Advancement.
I was interning at the National Institute of Indigenous
Languages in Mexico.
This summer, for two months, I interned at Toyko
Women's Christian University in Toyko, Japan.
I was conducting independent research
in Amsterdam.
I think at Mount Holyoke, we are not just giving students an internship,
but what we say is that we want to prepare them for what they need to know, what they
might bring to an internship experience. And then, very importantly, when they come back,
what they need to do to process that experience and to process it together.
I learned that I can handle anything.
My work that I did over the summer really gave me more clarity, in terms
of my passions and goals.
I got to see what people who studied all of the same things that I studied,
what they apply their tools to. And that for me was like, "Oh, I can actually do something
in the real world that is relevant, with all of the things that I am learning."
I think the key idea in this particular class, where we talk about
internships, is the idea of translation; that they are able to translate the content and
the meanings and the capacities from the liberal arts core in whatever discipline they are
in, into new challenges, new opportunities, new contexts, and new relationships.
I didn't realize how important my classes were until I was able to use them
in the workplace.
I was able to reflect and look back on things that I overlooked before.
You learn how to talk about your internship opportunity and mold that
conversation for different audiences.
For the twenty-first-century labor market, as all the research shows us, change
is extremely fast, timelines are increasingly compressed. The occupational destination in
20 years is as yet unknown. And in this environment, one's ability to transit domains, translate
from one area to another, pull back and see the big picture, zoom down into technical
details--it's this set of abilities that really describe a well-rounded liberal arts graduate.
Everything that I did and everything that I said and everything that I learned,
I got from Mount Holyoke.
There's a world of opportunities out there for you to explore. Literally, the
possibilities are limitless, and I think, just given, given the kind of world we live in,
where you can do almost anything you want to do, it's very, very important to take a
step back, introspect, and ask yourself, like you know, "Why are you getting into this?"
"What does it mean for your own career aspirations?"
Just to have that feeling again of this research, all those connections that
I made, and just feel proud about what I am doing. That was what was so great about College 211 class,
is that wow, I am the one who did this research. I am amazing. I am fierce.