How I scored my summer internships

Hi guys,

I had a question awhile ago about how I was able to score two different internships in a "smaller" town. While New York and Washington, DC have a wealth of opportunities, it's hard sometimes to come home and find things that will put you on the same level as other people who are able to afford housing for the summer in the big cities!

For my position at Mercy Corps, I simply did a lot of research into while nonprofits were around in Portland. Luckily enough, they do offer internships through their website and so I was able to look at the postings that way. I made sure to include relevant information as to previous jobs, volunteer experiences, and academic interests in order to show the staff at Mercy Corps how interested I was and to show them how perfect this position really was for me. I applied in February and was interviewed in mid March. I received notification that I got the internship late March and I started in mid May. Now, mid August, I am wrapping up my work here.

 It's a little bit of a different story for my internship in Tuberculosis Control at the Oregon Health Authority. The Oregon Department of Human Services just split from the Public Health Division, so while my position technically would fall under the Oregon DHS, it now is categorized differently. There were no listings I encountered when looking up the DHS, so I set about finding a big list of names within the Public Health Division. I composed an email about myself again listing relevant information, but particularly highlighting my study abroad in Botswana and how I supervised the Directly Observed Treatment for tuberculosis patients in a clinic there. While I emailed many different people in infectious disease between January and March, I finally received a response back from the Tuberculosis Controller at the end of March expressing her interest in getting me on board. I probably sent 50+ emails (being really annoying to the whole office, I'm sure) until I received a response, and it worked!! I really love the experience that I have had there and am glad I was really adamant about emailing.

Questions? As always, email me at marisaw@gwmail.gwu.edu
- Marisa