I was discussing my plans for the Summer with my friend the other day, and he reminded me that it was just about time to start looking into internship opportunities. With the current limitations due to covid, finding an internship has proven to be even more difficult than I had originally thought. I have to find letters of recommendation, take the appropriate courses, and maybe even move across the country to get the hands on experience that I need. I am planning on compiling a list over the next few weeks, but I will definitely keep the information provided by the panelists in mind. I will check out handshake and the other networking websites to find people that might be able to provide me with a little bit of advice.

Additionally, I originally thought there would be only one type of internship I could apply for. However, it seems that it could actually be beneficial to use the first few internships to gain skills, rather than stress about applying for the job I ultimately want at the end. This could also help me find internships by broadening my search of key words when I’m finding opportunities to find something that will be good for me in the long term. Also, it is important to experience different types of internships to make sure that I’m interested in the actual applied science, rather than the idea of the science I want to pursue. At this point, I think I know what I want to pursue but having a wide range of possibilities and allowing for the possibility that my interests will change is important. I’m still stressed about letters of recommendations and matching all the requirements, but at least now I have a plan of how to approach determining my break plans.