By Cate Woods
Internships are a great opportunity for students to gain experience and immerse themselves in their field before graduating. Yet, applying and completing an internship can often be daunting and intimidating. This is why, every fall semester, the Writing Department at Grand Valley State University (GVSU) holds an internship info session for its majors. The goal is to give students opportunities to learn about the application process, ask questions, and hear from past interns. The latest edition took place on October 8, 2024.
Why is an internship mandatory?
During the first part of the event, writing professor and internship coordinator Dauvan Mulally spent time explaining what an internship is and why it is an integral part of the writing curriculum. As Professor Mulally noted, “An internship can offer many benefits to the journey toward a career, such as solidifying which field you would like to work in, providing opportunities that the University may not, and giving you a chance to build networking connections that may be helpful in the future.” Differently put, the Writing Department requires an internship because it wants to give its students a leg up when they enter the workforce after graduation.
How do students find internships?
Knowing how, when, and where to start is one of the most intimidating parts of the process. To help with this, Professor Mulally showed a pie chart that broke down the different places where fellow students have interned. These included a variety of places, from local book publishers to medical groups, and covered many different writing tasks such as marketing emails, graphic design, technical writing, and editing. Besides showing the many opportunities for finding internships, this information also helped students to get a better idea of what a writing intern actually does.
One of the burning questions students had though, was “How exactly does one find out about an internship?” The data presented by Professor Mulally showed that 24.9 percent were found by contacting the company or organization directly. Though this may seem surprising, it makes sense that showing initiative by contacting a place where you want to work may be the reason why you get offered an internship. The next highest percentage, at 17.8, was Handshake. Handshake is a platform, much like LinkedIn, where GVSU students can see job and internship postings for around campus or other organizations and companies. The next percentage, at 15.1, was an internship posting directly from an organization or company. Looking at the websites of companies and organizations for which you would like to intern may be a good idea.
Following these, at 12.5 and 11.9 percent were professors and classmates/friends pointing out internship opportunities. Checking in with friends and professors can be a way to find an open internship, especially because professors are alerted all the time to new job and internship opportunities. The subsequent percentage, at 9.5, was family members. Family members may know of internship opportunities within their own places of work. Professor Mulally noted that this percentage has risen over the past couple of years. She told the students to not be afraid to ask a family member if they have any internship openings that they know of. This way gives the students the ability to fulfill the internship requirement for graduation but also can almost guarantee a connection to the organization or company they are applying to. The last but not least percentage, at 8.3, was a Career Advisor. Our GVSU Career Center on campus has the resources to connect students with finding job and internship opportunities. They also help with the application process such as cover letters and resumes.
Professor Mulally ended her talk by explaining the other requirements, including the mandatory registration for WRT 490, the internship class. This class is designed to help the students succeed in their internship and prepare them to transition to their life outside of college.
What is the experience like?
After learning how to find an internship, students wanted to know what the experience itself would be like. In response, fellow students shared their experiences with doing their internship. Genevieve Balivet, a student at GVSU, spoke about her specific internship experience abroad in Scotland, which is the Writing Department’s individual study abroad program. While there, Genevieve worked with a non-profit to produce a book celebrating the organization’s 25th anniversary. Alongside working on the anniversary book, Genevieve also did resource sheet and blog writing. She offered some advice about internships in general: “It is alright to ask questions; pitch your ideas because that is what you are there for.” Study abroad programs are a fantastic way to gain internship experience as well as explore the world. Internships can come in many different forms, so it’s worth exploring the options.
The 2024 info session enabled students to explore the specifics of an internship by providing a space to ask questions about the requirements, the process, and the overall experience. At the end of the session, students felt better prepared to start their own internship journey.
