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!