This essay appeared in the 2021 Fueling Discovery special section of the Wisconsin State Journal on 10/17/21. View the full 2021 Fueling Discovery PDF here.
About the author
Rebekah Pryor Paré is Associate Dean and Founding Executive Director of SuccessWorks and the Letters & Science Career Initiative. She has a passion for helping students translate their personal interests and classroom experiences into lifelong professional success after graduation. Since opening its doors to students in 2017, SuccessWorks has served over 40,000 L&S students.
“Get an internship so you can put it on your resume.”
I often hear this advice for students. Internships give students concrete experience to be competitive for full-time jobs after graduation. But in the College of Letters & Science (L&S), we show students that internships can do so much more — they create opportunities to discover their interests and strengths while actively exploring various career paths.
During internships, L&S students are challenged to delve into the culture of an organization, learn about occupations and apply the skills they are learning in college in a practical setting. It is thrilling to talk with students as they navigate these transformative experiences.
With 65 undergraduate majors to choose from, L&S students develop in-demand skills like analytical thinking, creative problem solving and communication. During his internship at the U.S. State Department, Gerald Cox (’09) learned how to understand complex issues and speak on behalf of people thousands of miles away. These skills for empathy, combined with the analytical and cultural sensitivity skills built through his economics and Middle Eastern studies majors, are useful for reaching different audiences and helped him “understand how the world works,” according to Cox.
Adding an internship to the UW experience isn’t always easy. Many are unpaid and living expenses and transportation costs add up quickly. It’s no surprise that many students face barriers to participation.
When we launched SuccessWorks at the College of Letters & Science, we sought to ensure all students have access to essential workforce preparation experiences like internships. My team and I weren’t interested in limiting opportunities to the privileged few. Through the generosity of motivated supporters, we raised funds to put internship experiences in reach for more students.
Gerald Cox intentionally sought an internship outside of Madison to push the boundaries of his experience. “Washington, D.C. is a great place, but it’s very expensive and my internship came with no pay,” he says. “I come from a family that didn’t have a lot so I couldn’t rely on them for financial support. I thought I wouldn’t be able to take the internship because it was too expensive.” With internship funding support from L&S, Cox made his internship dreams a reality.
Tamia Fowlkes (‘22) received funding from SuccessWorks for her internship at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this summer. “It is so amazing that this opportunity is available to students to alleviate some of the burdens,” says the journalism and political science major. “I am immensely grateful for the support the internship has given me. Doing nitty-gritty work like public records requests and more down-to-earth tasks like in-person interviews both lend well to the wide breadth of knowledge I’ve gained here at UW in my journalism courses, and prepare me to continue working in this field,” she adds.
These internship funds also give students access to social capital and networks. Cox remembers a conversation with a State Department director who advised him to work in the private sector before working in the public sector. “You can make an impact when you know how the world works,” he says. “I gained a lot of perspective from that conversation.”
Gerald and Tamia represent just two of the 285 students who have received over $780,000 in internship support from L&S since 2006. When we extend opportunity to our students, they do amazing things. This is the work that makes my work so fulfilling, and I’m proud that L&S has invested in student self-discovery and career preparation.
Cox’s internship helped him secure a subsequent internship in the private sector, then a full-time role with a Fortune 25 company as a market researcher. Today, he is Senior Manager of Insights & Analytics at Kellogg Company for the Cheez-It Brand, which he calls “one of the most fun brands on the planet.” “Without the funding support, I would not have had the many opportunities I’ve gotten since,” he adds.
For her part, Tamia Fowlkes has her whole future ahead of her, and I look forward to seeing where she takes it. For now, her goal is to pursue a career in journalism and to “pass down the knowledge that I have gained to aid the next generation of journalists and world-changers to make a difference.”