Getting the opportunity to intern at Pre-Law and DGS has been rewarding. There are many things that I learned about throughout the semester. I learned a great deal about myself and what I enjoy doing. For the most part, social media is not something that I enjoy doing. Still, I appreciated getting the chance to work with social media because I got first-hand experience realizing how difficult it seems for higher education to have a presence in social media. It makes me question whether higher education should venture into those areas. Perhaps other schools have it figured out but with a lack of literature, it is hard to determine how best to reach students. I also learned about the importance of having people with different skills surround you in your work. I helped on projects that I was stronger in than other people in the office. However, there is no way I could have advised a student about law school as well as the pre-law advisors because they know unique information that I could not have learned. Being aware of strengths and weaknesses will be important for me in my work. I will need to strike a balance between giving a student information that I know a lot about and giving the student information that I don't know much about but by helping them, they wouldn't have had to go talk to another person on campus to get information. I also learned that advising takes a lot of practice to be good. To some people, it may come across as a simple job, but students face complex issues or have complex and unique situations that make every student a challenge for an advisor. No two students are alike and no two appointments with students will go the same. Knowing that, I hope that academic advising stays interestng.
I felt very welcome and warm at DGS and Pre-Law. Both offices want the best experience for their interns and they always told me how much they valued my efforts. It would be a good place for someone to intern at again. I recommend that if someone would like to intern at either office, that they sit down with their supervisor and develop concrete tasks that they will be doing. I bascially created my internship and what I was going to be doing but it would have been nice with a little bit more guidance. This way, the intern also will discover if this internship is where they want to be.
