I don’t think many people go into college knowing exactly what they want to do at what company. I certainly didn’t. I still don’t really know, but I have a much better idea thanks to three very different internships during college.
After freshman year, I had an internship at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy in their marketing department working on planning events for a membership drive. I worked with some great people, and we had monthly cake days to celebrate birthdays which was pretty cool. Since I was there for the summer months, there were a lot of thru-hikers passing through Harpers Ferry. I talked to some of them, and their stories were really interesting. The hour-long commute was better than most hour-long commutes because it was against traffic, facing away from the sun, and through gorgeous western Maryland. However, it made for long days and I know commute is something I’ll definitely consider when choosing my future houses/jobs. My internship was cut short by a month when my day off for a dentist and doctor appointment turned into a cancer diagnosis. This meant I never got to attend any of the events I had been planning which was incredibly disappointed. Last year, I had an internship at Cool Kids Campaign for my first co-op. I wrote about it pretty frequently in my posts last summer, but for new readers, Cool Kids Campaign is a Maryland non-profit that supports kids and their families during (and after) cancer treatment. Although they’re based in Maryland, some of their programs are nationwide. I got involved in a teen survivor club sponsored by Cool Kids during high school, so I was already familiar with their programs when I relapsed in 2013. They were extremely supportive during my treatment, and I found it really rewarding to join them as an intern to give back to other kids and families in treatment. The summer was full of events, including an annual 5K (June 14th this year for my runner friends) and the American Girl Fashion Show. This show is one of my favorite events, since I was a huge AG fan as a child. Over 100 girls are chosen to be models in the show, and they dress in outfits to match the doll’s historical clothes, pajamas, and other outfits while the emcees tell the doll’s story and explain the outfit’s features or significance. Each model fundraises for Cool Kids and it’s amazing to see how much money some of these elementary school girls raise for such a good cause. My sister will be participating for the third time, though this will be her last year since she’s outgrowing the clothes AG provides for the show. When I wasn’t busy working on stuff for events, I was writing or editing for the Cool Kids Connection, a newspaper that goes out to pediatric oncology units in hospitals around the country. It’s filled with patient submissions and helps connect families going through similar situations. Other days, I would make care packages for kids nationwide based on their interests or plan outings for the teen survivors club. Having an internship at a small nonprofit made it clear to me that I want a job that makes a difference in people’s lives. I don’t think I’d be happy working for a big corporation (though I haven’t tried it so I guess I don’t really know). It was really interesting to be on the other side of an organization that helped me. When I relapsed again halfway through my internship, I was lucky enough to have a flexible schedule which allowed me to balance appointments and my internship. I could also complete some projects from home or the hospital, which was great for keeping my mind off things when I felt too sick to drive in. It was a little bit of normalcy in the midst of a lot of chaos. I don’t have too much to say about my current internship as a technical writer yet because I’ve only been there two weeks. My department has been very welcoming and friendly which has been great. I’ve gotten to work with some pretty cool programs to generate documents based on the engineers’ models. If you’ve never heard of model-based systems engineering, the main take-away is that when someone makes a change to the model, they make it in one place. They can then generate all the appropriate documents from the templates I’m creating and those documents will include the change in every necessary place. This is just a few clicks, instead of going through every document and making the change by hand repeatedly. I enjoy the projects I’m working on and the documentation is kind of a puzzle, which I really like even though it’s been a little slow to start while I figure out the programs. I love to learn, so being involved with a variety of complicated engineering projects is interesting for me. I’ve learned that I like a challenge and I like to help people. I like a friendly and somewhat casual office environment. I don’t know what this will mean for me down the road, but I’m glad I’m learning now. What did you figure out (or wish you figured out) from your first jobs or internships?
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AuthorI’m Karen. I was originally diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) in August 2004 when I was 10 years old. When I was working on my college and scholarship application essays two years ago, I wrote about my journey. Although it was a rough few years, it became such an influential part of my life that I can’t, and wouldn’t want to, imagine my life without having had cancer. I called it the worst best thing that ever happened to me. Archives
April 2022
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