I am currently an intern at Silver State Service Dogs (SSSD). At first, I was not entirely sure whether it would benefit my career or not since it is a nonprofit organization that works with training dogs, service dogs, but after having our first meeting I realized that this would be a great experience. I have been working on designing posts, flyers, etc. in order to recruit volunteers for our organization and to promote it, so this has benefited me a lot in terms of working with media design since one of my majors is Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science. Another task is emailing/calling pet stores looking for donations for our puppies, so this has helped me improve my social skills and be less scared to communicate which ties into my second major, Bachelor of Arts in English (Professional Writing). I believe that in order to be successful in this internship, the educational requirements I needed were experience working with Google Sheets, Docs, etc.; English courses that have changed for the best my communication skills and more. I am interested in this career after completing my internship, but since my main focus right now is Engineering, I would love to work in this area while also practicing Engineering. SSSD's mission is to provide veterans and those in need with a service dog, so I would need to know more about how to work with service dogs as well as a little bit of psychology, so that I can communicate better with the dogs' owners. One piece of advice I have for incoming interns is to only join an internship you know will benefit your career and you also like.
Hey Iliana,
I really enjoyed reading your post! I can see how much you enjoyed being with
SSSD, so thank you for sharing your experience. I do have to say that I really like how you were able to find something that you learned and tie it in with your major because you are right that these internships really require us to develop social skills. I am glad that you were able to break out of your shell and be more confident in your social skills because you as a writer and an engineer you need to be able to work with others. I think you should be very proud of yourself and keep up the great work!
Hi Iliana, your reflection post is great! Thank you for sharing your experience at SSSD; it definitely looks like you've gained a lot of passion and motivation for your future career path. Not only this, but the way that the internship has connected to your majors is incredibly interesting -- you can definitely tell that a lot of the skills that you have gained throughout your academic career has most definitely helped you out at your time at the internship. Great job!
Hello Iliana,
I think the job you are doing is very important for those in need and for the dogs who need the help. I think is very interesting to work with these types of non-profit organizations because that way you are not only helping the owners but also the community and working with dogs in a huge plus in my opinion. I think the advice you gave was really appropriate specially if the person is only doing one internship during the undergrad studies.
Hello, Iliana. I am happy to hear that you found work related to your major for your internship. Work with marketing materials on social media was something I was asked to create for my internship but I imagine you have way more experience than I do regarding media design. I am trying to follow you when you are working on a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science, a Bachelor of Arts in English (Professional Writing), and Engineering. Are you a triple major? That sounds like an intense work load but those areas will all offer you great opportunities for your future. There is a great demand for professional writing and being able to couple that with computer science, I think you will get an amazing job. It was a pleasure to read about your experience. I appreciate how open you were to gaining experience from your internship, even if the tasks you performed weren’t related to your major. Doing those things clearly brought you life skills that you will have for a long time.