The Syracuse University iSchool Graduate Organization (iSGO) hosted a student internship panel on Friday, September 24, 2010, in which graduate students from various disciplines dispensed advice on applying for internships, funding internships and deciding on the best internship to a class room full of their peers.
Jessica O’Toole G’11, Shander Bawden G’11, and Rose Burdick G’11 represented the Library and Information Science graduates and interned at the Smithsonian Institute, New York Library for the Performing Arts and the North Onondaga Public Library, respectively.
Information Management graduate students Jasy Liew Yan G’11, who interned at Microsoft, and Deep Shah G’11, who interned at JPMorgan Chase (JPMC), joined the panel, as did Telecommunications Network Management graduate students Rohan Kamat G’11, who interned for Information Technology and Services at Syracuse University and Paridhi Nadarajan G’11 who also spent the summer working for JPMC.
Special guest Attia Nasar, a public diplomacy graduate student at Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, joined the iSchool students to talk about her internship at GovLoop, what she described as the “Facebook of government.”
iSGO president and iSchool graduate student Andrew Farah G’11 moderated the panel, asking each panelist how they found their internship and what they recommend to the new students sitting in the audience.
The panel made the distinction between the different kind of internships generally offered and available to the different graduate programs. For example, IM internships tend to be paid, and students should start looking for them immediately, while LIS students could usually wait until January. Yet, all of the panelists said they shouldn’t be disheartened if responses aren’t quick. O’Toole said she didn’t hear back until May from an internship she applied to in March.
Bawden also advised students who aren’t applying for paid internships to seek out internship funding. Programs like the William B. Magnarelli Renaissance Internship fund, available since 2000, provide money for living expenses for students working in unpaid academic internships. The Renaissance Internship in particular, funds students seeking internships in the science, engineering and information fields to work in organizations based in New York.
At the end of the presentation, iSGO provided cookies and coffee for both panelists and students.