Check out what these three awesome Tufts students are doing for their own internships, and their advice for other students in the search process!
Betty Fong (Freshman): Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) Community Health Initiative Internship
1. How she found it:
- Their newsletter
- Tufts Asian American Center
- Upperclassmen friends
2. Application process:
- Choose an undergraduate internship role (i.e. community health initiative, education, voting rights, environmental rights, housing discrimination etc.)
- Submit a resume and cover letter
- Interview
3. Why it suits her:
- “I believe health is a human right, yet in the United States, there are so many disparities that are caused by a lacking and racist and patriarchal system.”
- “It makes me mad when I find out that Chinatown community members—most middle-aged, low-income immigrants—don’t get the services they need for reasons like language barriers, transportation, lack of insurance, and affordability of services.”
- “I don’t have the answers to these problems or the knowledge to change/fix the system, but I know this internship will help me learn about the system and potential solutions.”
4. What the organization does:
- Protects and promotes the civil rights of Asian Americans
- Combines litigation, advocacy, and education to help Asian American communities across the country and to secure human rights for all
5. What she will be doing as an intern:
- Legal research
- Community education
- Outreach in the areas of immigration, government benefits, language rights, and health care access
6. Advice to others searching for internships:
- Follow your heart and do something that will make you happy and challenge you
- Look into Tufts Entrepreneurial Society (TES) which helps people find internships and think of start-up ideas
Ryan Fleer (Sophomore): Department of Commerce Intern for the Enforcement and Compliance Sector in the Operations Unit
1. How he found it:
- Co-worker of his mom
2. Application process:
- Submit resume
- 3 interviews for 3 different sectors of the Department of Commerce
- Interviews included questions-asking and an overview of what interns do over the summer
3. Why it suits him:
- “I feel limited to finance with my International Relations and double Economics majors so I’m using this internship as a way to see where else I could land with work.”
4. What the organization does:
- Makes American businesses more innovative at home and more competitive abroad
5. What he will be doing as an intern:
- Working on the preliminary decision of one investigation
- Working on the final decision of a different investigation.
- Working with data programming
- Reading about companies and analyzing their issues
6. Advice to others searching for internships:
- Intern at a place where you like the people that work there
- The people who you want to work with should be enthusiastic about their job and happy to have you
Alice Wasserman (Freshman): Boomrat Intern
1. How she found it:
- Family friend who just graduated from college starting has a new startup company and needs help
2. Application process:
- None, because the company is so new and has so few people working for it.
3. Why it suits her:
- Allows her to stay in her hometown, LA
- Will provide a sense of how companies perform in the market
4. What the organization does:
- Serves as a web platform for finding dance music and is a community for dance music fans to share music
- Similar to ‘Spotify’ but only for dance music
5. What she will be doing as an intern:
- Copy editing articles
- Assisting the person who finds new stories to write about
6. Advice to others searching for internships:
- Put yourself out there
- Try internships that might not fit your exact criteria because you might find something new you like
Photos courtesy of: community.mis.temple.edu, aaldef.org, cats.rpi.edu, webutations.org.
Edited by: Lauren Medwid