Philosophers do Internships

Where and when did you do your internship and what did you do as an intern?

I was an intern at the Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Support Office on campus. This was the first year the Faculty of Graduate Studies offered on-campus part-time internships with various offices around campus. The internship term was January 15-April 15. My role was to research evidence-based sexual violence prevention programming and make recommendations to the residence advisory committee on how to best spend their annual budget. I spent the first month or so researching sexual and gender-based violence, taking a course on policies and procedures, and learning about the existing programming at the University of Calgary. After that, I met with various students and employees on campus to learn about their experiences. Finally, I consolidated my data in a presentation, proposal, and final report to the advisory committee. 

How did you find out about or generate the opportunity to do the internship?

I found out about the internship on the Elevate website.

Did you find that doing the internship was useful? What did you get out of it?

The internship was excellent. The people working in the office were welcoming and supportive. It provided me an opportunity to use my research and writing skills in a concrete task that differs from writing a thesis or academic papers and allowed me to recognize the value graduate students can bring to various work environments. I also appreciated the opportunity to get to experience working in a non-academic role at the university. It provided me an opportunity to see university structures from a different perspective and to help determine whether that career path might be a good fit for me.       

Did you get paid? How much and by whom?

The internship paid $26/hour for up to 14 hours per week. The cost was split between FGS and Residence services. I also completed a short course on D2L for a $200 course completion bonus.

What should a grad student interested in doing an internship know that you wish someone had told you before you applied or did it?

If you are thinking of doing an internship, I highly recommend it. The type of internship that will work for you will depend on the specific goals you have. This part-time option was great for me because I could continue to work on my thesis as well as gain work experience. A full-time internship is great for students who don't have any work experience as it can help them see what non-academic jobs might be like and get their foot in the door. Since I already have extensive work experience, this part-time opportunity was great for me to have some more recent work experience on my resume as I look to graduate and return to the workforce full-time.