EXTERN STUDENT

I spent the fall semester of my Junior year of college in the District through the Washington Internship Institute (WII). In addition to interning four days a week, I completed two classes—a core course in politics and one for professional development—once a week at WII to supplement my studies for my undergraduate degree. The former focused on the special topic of United States politics and policy and the latter was meant to aid us in our internship experiences and enhance our professional lives.

 

• Inside Washington: Politics & Policy – This elective course focused United States policy-making processes and the people and groups that influence key laws and issues. Given the timing with the 2016 Presidential Election season, this class was particularly interesting. We explored a variety of different domestic policies, ranging from healthcare to gun control to climate change to reproductive rights, both for individual essays and within the classroom where we were able to debate our various viewpoints with our peers. We also got to hear directly from guest speakers from both sides of issues and had the opportunity to travel to specific organizations, in addition to historic landmarks like the US Capitol Building, Supreme Court, and the Pentagon. 

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• Reflections on Personal & Professional Development – To enhance our internship experiences and provide guidance for our professional aspirations, this class was structured around self-reflection and learning from and sharing with others. It encouraged me to connect our classroom learning (both in DC and at my home university) with what I learned and did at my internship and future jobs. This course emphasized open discussions and reflections to benefit our professional and personal lives—especially from learning from our peers. This course also assisted in developing skills, including written and verbal communication, giving and receiving feedback, interviewing, presentation skills, and networking. We created an online portfolio, updated our resumes, and improved our cover letter and essay writing talents. 

 

I earned transferrable credits from this coursework. From my internship, I also was able to fulfill requirements for public relations and online and social media marketing learning goals.