Uncoupling the Paradigm

Uncoupling the Paradigm
3/13/08 at 2:47:19 PM

—Bobby Bryant, Academic Adviser
Social Sciences Student Community

Our Internships for Social Sciences programming event, put on in conjunction with the Career and Community Learning Center and our department advisers, was a smashing success. Our panelists included students who had internships with the State Department (at the U.S. Embassy in the United Kingdom), the White House, Meryl Lynch, and the National Geographic Society. We also had a couple employers who talked about what they look for in students for internships and how to interview well. We think the event was especially useful in helping our students uncouple the "major equals career" paradigm that can sometimes be so difficult to break down. We also think it was beneficial for our students to learn about some of the truly amazing internships that their fellow students have landed while here at the University and—perhaps more importantly—how these students learned about and applied to them.

Madhu reports that the Economics Student Organization presented a follow-up session to the Internships for Social Sciences Students. This grew out of her observation that when she encouraged students to attend the internship session, many students reported that they did not feel that they had much in common with other social science students and/or that they were not interested in social science internships.

The ESO session on internships featured four Economics students who had recently completed internships. Three of the four presenters had internships that could be classified as "social science" in nature. One of the speakers presented at both sessions. Madhu reports that there was very little difference in the types of internships discussed or the advice given but noted that students who had attended both sessions found the ESO session "much more helpful." This highlights the value of offering both cross-departmental and department-specific programming.

In other office news Bobby and Stephanie Lawrence have been busy seeing the General Studies Transition students. About two-thirds have been seen as of this week with just two total no-shows. Our peer advisers are looking forward to Spring Break—one is headed to Las Vegas and the other is headed to Florida.

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