Internships and Experientail Learning

I ran an intern program for my company for the past 3.5 years. It is a pretty amazing opportunity for students in engineering, computer science, economics, and business. Students get to work full-time at our company for 11 weeks during the summer. They work on projects that are the equivalent of what we give entry level employees, so it's real work. They're surrounded by mentors and coaches from their department, so they get tons of support. They get to learn about the power industry through training, field trips to industry sites, and presentations by our senior staff. We also put them through job preparation workshops to teach them about how to get a job when they get done with school. What's more, they get paid a ridiculous amount of money!

I would have LOVED to have an opportunity like this when I was in college. Unfortunately, these types of opportunities were not available to me as a liberal arts major. My summer internships was at an arts foundation in Chicago. They couldn't pay, but luckily my college gave me a small stipend so I could at least afford rent for a couple months, but I was on my own for everything else. The work I did for the foundation was all over the place. I filled in at the welcome desk when the receptionist was out. I made copies and stuffed envelopes for mailings. I called donors and asked for money. I rearranged and cataloged the library. I developed brochures for one of their programs, and then I printed and folded about 400 copies of those brochures. I hung art work in the gallery. I participated in critiques of student work. I swept out the sculpture classroom to remove dust from plaster molds. I took notes at meetings. I provided college advising for high schoolers. I co-taught a workshop on making tin retablos for Chicago public school teachers. I co-taught a class on mural making with a group of high schoolers who were training to work with elementary and middle school students on a city-wide mural project. I served wine at a donor party. I walked the Executive Director's dog.

I learned many things that summer. Some of which were sort of applicable to the working world and my future adult life, but most of which were about myself and life in a big city. It was not a waste of time, but it was a very different experience from the students who intern at my company. They are actually learning how to be engineers, what it's like to work in a professional environment, what's going on in the industry that they may choose to work in, and what it's like to make money. These are very important skills to learn at an early age in order to get a leg up in life.