Students engage in practical work opportunities to enhance skills valued by employers, participate in professional development opportunities, and cultivate a professional network.
During your academic internship experience, you may have done some of the following:
- Apply classroom learning related to your major or minor
- Articulate skills developed and/or enhanced by the internship experience
- Identify professional development opportunities to expand knowledge, understanding, and abilities
- Establish connections with industry-related professionals
Reflection Activities
First, clearly identify and describe your Academic Internship. Then, select and incorporate evidence that demonstrates you had some of the experiences suggested above. To do so, you will need to complete at least 2 of the reflection activities listed below. As this is a digital portfolio, avoid relying only on writing. Consider providing pictures, video, or other media to demonstrate skills obtained or enhanced by this experience. You can use video to respond to some of the prompts, so long as you also include materials you produced during the experience.
- Compare the content of at least 2 previous courses with the duties and responsibilities of your internship. What were your position responsibilities? How did your college course work prepare you for this type of work? What prior knowledge/experience were you missing prior to your internship?
- Reflect on professional development opportunities in which you have participated during your internship by providing a brief description of each opportunity. What new knowledge, skills, and abilities did you gain by participating in these professional development opportunities? Describe how these opportunities have shaped your views of your major/minor and your career goals. If possible, include pictures or video of the event(s).
- Conduct at least one informational interview with a professional in your field. Provide the interview questions/answers. Describe why you chose to interview this professional in particular. Then reflect on the impact of this information on your career goals by providing a paragraph outlining your goals now that your internship has ended.
- Include a one minute reflection video regarding your internship experience. What were key experiences you will take away from this process? What skills did you develop or enhance? How will this be useful to you in future professional settings?
- Have you applied concepts from your internship experience in another context, such as a professional, classroom, volunteer, extracurricular, or social setting? If so, how did you do so? If not, how might you apply concepts you learned in the future?
If one or more of the prompts don’t seem to directly address your experience, please feel free to interpret them to some degree, allowing you to respond in an authentic way. This is your experience; these prompts are meant to help you share it in a way that is useful to multiple audiences.