The Royal Experience Summer Internship Program

The most rewarding part of my internship as an organic chemistry undergraduate research student was experiencing an atmosphere that could one day become my workplace. Although one can visit work sites and be told about what jobs in chemistry research will be like, I got the chance to actually live the life of a researcher for 10 weeks and immerse myself in it completely. However, the most challenging part of my internship is the effort that must be put in to dedicate oneself to one thing for so long. In school, I am used to working on a paper for a few days, turning it in, and being done with it forever. In research and a full time job, the work all relates and piles on itself, causing you to never actually be finished. It takes a large amount of dedication to continually immerse oneself in research, because a great discovery will never come overnight.

Alex Gardner
Chemistry/Philosphy

The most challenging part of my internship is navigating the transitional period that the Bureau of Disease Control is currently experiencing. At the beginning of my internship the Director resigned to take on a new job, the research technician went out on maternity leave, and STD typist also left for a new job. The changes in staff resulted in the department being understaffed and everyone taking on new responsibilities. This transition period has been difficult for me because there has not been one point person in charge of my internship. However, due to the transition, I have been given more responsibilities on research projects because of the lack of regular staff. I have more ownership and input on the projects which has helped grow my research skills.

The most rewarding part of my internship is helping out with the Refugee Assistance clinics. These clinics are held off site, in the part of the county where the most refugees live. The clinic is set up in the basement of an un-air-conditioned church and served roughly 120 refugees a week. This summer, Onondaga County has received an influx of new refugees entering the county. All of these refugees must be screened for Tuberculosis, which is what we do at the clinic. The clinic is often very busy and full of people from many different countries. On any given day, I can hear 5 or more different languages being spoken among the refugees. The staff sometimes finds it difficult to communicate with the refugees because of their limited English, however that does not diminish the level of care which is provided. The staff is compassionate and caring towards all of the patients and the staff serve as my role models for how I want to administer care as a future health care professional.

This summer has been full of learning and new experiences. I can’t believe how hands-on experience makes everything learned in the classroom come to life! The most rewarding part of my internship is watching my patients achieve their goals. Many of them come into the rehab center at a much more dependent level then their prior level of function. It is amazing to see my patients making gains everyday and knowing that I am part of the reason they get to return home safely with their family. I also love to be able to form connections with them and get to be apart of their everyday life while they’re in rehab. It is definitely a challenge when there are certain patients that don’t have the opportunity to make a complete recovery; Whether that be a person who has had a stroke and now has an inability to talk or a patient with aggressively progressing MS. Its hard to know that no matter how creative an intervention I design to uniquely benefit that person, that they will never get to be as independent as they were before the diagnosis. The story that really sticks with me the most is of one MS patient, John. John was bed bound due to his disease and was only in his mid-fifties. John’s wife was taking care of him at home until she became terminally ill with cancer. She died a few months after being diagnosed; leaving behind their special needs 30-year-old daughter that John was unable to care for by himself. The first time I met him my heart broke for his situation. I am sure this never how he envisioned his life would go. It inspires me everyday that despite the challenges life has thrown at him he is still able to go on with life and find the positive side of situations.

Katie Leithauser
Occupational Therapy

There were so many amazing aspects of my internship that it is truly difficult to pick just one of them as the most rewarding. After some thought, though, I would say that my favorite part was being able to interact with so many clients and learning their stories and struggles. When I had first decided to become a lawyer, a lot of my family and friends were concerned, worrying that I would eventually grow tired of such a “boring” and stressful job. While these comments did not deter me, this summer has given me the confidence to shut down these misconceptions about this line of work. I won’t lie and say that this summer wasn’t stressful or challenging because it definitely was! For the first time in my life, I was in an office situation working with a very busy and focused lawyer who didn’t always have the time to let me know what she needed from me. For me, this was very challenging because I didn’t have the experience to know how to assist her without guidance and so there was a bit of an awkward adjustment period while I tried to become more accustomed to the law office’s needs and the constructive criticism I received from my colleagues. While it was incredibly challenging, the takeaway was definitely worth it. I read several hundreds of case files during my internship and every single one was unique: each document and photo inside was its own special piece that only fit into that person’s puzzle. I really feel lucky to have had this experience; I learned that the best feeling in the world is to see relief wash over a client’s face as they learn that they are no longer going to be deported or that they have been approved for asylum or a green card. I can’t wait to devote the rest of my life to helping immigrants and this internship has only helped me to fully realize that this is what I am meant to do with my life.

Kylie Mignat
International Studies

The most rewarding part of my internship at the Friendship House was definitely the children. Working with them, creating those relationships was an incredible journey that I will take with me through my future career. Watching some of the kids seriously progress, grow, and mature through the work of the Friendship House was inspiring and wonderful. I was truly blessed to be a part of the team at the Friendship House who could help those kids get the help they needed. My internship was extremely rewarding because it taught me the importance of compassion and understanding. Working with kids who have been traumatized is difficult to say the least. However, it was rewarding to develop the skills necessary to work with such a group of bright young children.

Working at the Friendship House had its challenges as well. As wonderful as the children were, working with the parents or family members was usually stressful. Sometimes parents get overwhelmed and stressed and then take it out on the staff members at the Friendship House. Occasionally parents can be stubborn or aggressive. It’s very hard trying to schedule a child to see a psychiatrist when the parent is furious about something and is yelling and being stubborn. Although not all parents were hard to work with, most parents could be challenging to say the least. However, I worked hard to overcome this challenge and be patient with parents who were being difficult. I kept an open mind and understood that those parents definitely had a lot on their plate. Through everything, the Friendship House taught me a lot about compassion, patience, and understanding, providing me with an incredible experience, one I would do again in a heartbeat.

First off I would like to say that I had the best Internship ever this summer, and it’s all thanks to The Royal Experience Internship Program! There were so many rewarding parts of my internship that it’s hard to narrow it down to one, but if I had to choose I would say the most rewarding part about interning at WHHI-TV was the opportunity’s I was given while there. I was able to do a live stand up report, guest host on their TV shows, contribute to their social media pages, and be able to stand in and help out with so many of there programs. Interning at WHHI-TV truly made me feel as though this was absolutely the career path that I wish to continue on, and I feel as though my time at The University of Scranton has prepared me greatly for my future career aspirations. The greatest challenge I found while interning at WHHI-TV was actually the amount of responsibility I was given. My first few days while at this internship I definitely was second guessing myself a lot, and didn’t want to mess up. I found it challenging to trust that I was doing the right thing, but by the end of the experience I felt so confident in myself. For example one of my first days I was at a video shoot and they had me focusing the camera, I was so nervous that I was going to mess it up and the whole video would turn out blurry, but by the end of the summer I could focus a camera quickly and with no problem! Overall I’m so happy with how my internship turned out, and I feel as though I truly gained real world experience.

Philadelphia Major Jim Kenney recently congratulated all students, including our very own Chris Louin, who completed the Mayor’s Internship Program. Check out the clip here.

The first thing I had noticed when I stepped into the Democratic National Committee was that it never sleeps. As I overheard someone say while waiting for orientation to start, “…There’s only 62 days until the convention,” and over the past four weeks, it’s been so exciting to play even a small part in getting ready for the convention and general election.

This summer, I’m working at the DNC’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.  as an intern in the research department. My fellow interns and I assist the research staffers, so we have been involved in several long-term projects. Our usual duties include transcription, data entry, some archival work, and sampling every food truck that parks near the Capitol South metro stop. We have had the opportunity to attend some events as well.

I knew political research was essential for a campaign, but I did not know how in-depth the research was until I became a part of it. Whenever I saw an article or political ad, I rarely thought about how exactly that information was gathered, but now I appreciate the fact that it might have taken a researcher or team hours of sifting through obscure material to find it. Also, the DNC’s research is mostly opposition research. As an individual, I believe getting to know the opposition is just as important as being well versed in your own side when deciding for whom to vote, even if it is an easy choice. As an organization, the DNC’s goal is clearly for their party’s candidate to be elected president, and opposition research is an important part of that process.

I think that this internship will influence my career path in several ways. Political research is so important, so whether I work for a non-profit, a political consulting firm, or a campaign (or, most likely, all three at different points in my career), it will likely involve research. Besides the work itself though, the DNC is just an incredible work environment. This intern class has only been here for four weeks, but already we have gotten immersed in projects, attended events and seen major political figures speak, worked closely with our supervisors, and learned about the other departments’ work through talks given by other senior staffers. The work itself has been interesting, but in this field in particular, it is so important to make connections and learn from others’ experiences. I certainly have plenty of opportunities to do that, and I can’t wait to see what the next two months will bring.

Megan Bershefsky
International Studies

My internship involves shadowing a physical therapist and helping around the clinic. As it is an out patient clinic I will have the chance to observe a variety of injuries and demographics, from children to student athletes to the elderly. I hope to learn how the special tests and treatment modalities I learned in class are applied to different patients. By observing intake appointments I hope to learn about the complexity of certain injuries and what therapists look for when presented with a complex patient. Also, by working at the same clinic for the majority of the summer I will observe how the therapists progress patients during their rehabilitation.

This internship will help me understand not only what a physical therapist does, but what a day in their life is like. There is a lot of paperwork and time spent scheduling patients to make sure they can get to their appointments. Another thing I am learning beyond the book knowledge is how to motivate different patients. This is hugely important as it is not something that can be taught in a classroom but is vital to providing care to patients. It is also interesting to interact with a third year physical therapy student, an athletic trainer, a physical therapy assistant, and two different physical therapists. These interactions allow me to see how each different professional works to provide care, which I want to be in the future, and what I should do to get there.