July 28th, 2014
in Student's Blog, Summer 2014
How Does Your Internship Relate to Your Major?
By Karolyne Ridgill
Summer 2014
“What do you do with an English degree?” These words have been uttered so frequently to undergrads pursuing a B.A. in English, the question is the title of a song in a popular Broadway musical. While a sincere question on the surface, most English majors have learned that “What do you want to do with an English degree?” translates roughly to “What job do you think you can get with such a useless degree?” I know, of course, that English is far from a useless degree. On the contrary, English is so useful it can be applied to jobs and careers in nearly every field; the world will always need excellent writers and analyzers. This, you see, is my problem. With so many career options, I don’t know what I will “do with my English degree.” My decision to come to Washington was made, in part, to see if the city could offer any ideas as to what I want to do after graduation.
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Tagged English Major, Internship vs. the Real World, Karolyne Ridgill, Summer 2014
April 7th, 2014
in Spring 2014, Student's Blog, Washington, DC
By Cassandra Carroll
Spring 2014
Our class outside the US Capitol.
In my first week as an intern on Capitol Hill I was asked the same sequence of questions approximately 40 times, and my first week was only two days long. People would start by asking if I was a student, when I replied yes, they wanted to know where, when I told them, they asked what I was studying. As soon as the words public relations were out of my mouth the confusion would cross their face. The next question was almost always some variety of “what are you doing here?”
No, I do not have a press specific internship. I answer phones, I give tours, I go to briefings, I do what every other intern on the hill does. The difference is that the political science major taking notes on America’s Future in Asia is at that moment doing something relevant to his major. It’s a clearly made connection.
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Tagged Cassandra Carroll, Congress, DC, Internship vs. the Real World, March 2014, Spring 2014, The Hill
