{"id":1423,"date":"2012-12-18T16:04:29","date_gmt":"2012-12-18T21:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/?p=1423"},"modified":"2013-05-15T16:38:53","modified_gmt":"2013-05-15T20:38:53","slug":"springboard-to-future-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/2012\/12\/18\/springboard-to-future-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Springboard to Future Work"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Doug

Doug Hertzler \u201988 went from being a student in EMU’s Washington program to returning, after earning his doctorate, as a professor. He now works at Action Aid International.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThis program\u00a0is for any EMU student,\u201d says former WCSC associate director Doug Hertzler \u201988<\/strong>. \u201cYou can position yourself to do anything you want after college through this program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hertzler himself is a case in point: he interned with Washington Inner City Self-Help while a student in the then-named WSSY program during the 1986-87 school year, went into anthropology, and wound back up as professor at now-named WCSC. (Hertzler moved into a new job with Action Aid International in November<\/a>\u00a02012.) Numerous alumni of the WSSY\/WCSC program continue to draw directly from their internship experience in their jobs today, scattered across a wide variety of career fields. Some examples:<\/a><\/p>\n

Pharmaceuticals<\/h3>\n

\u201cA lot of the things I learned during my WSSY year really played into what I\u2019ve done,\u201d said Fikir Tilahun \u201900 Sanders<\/strong>, most recently employed in corporate social responsibility for a large pharmaceutical company. During her year in Washington, Sanders was an intern with Bread for the City, a nonprofit that provided healthcare, legal assistance and other support to low-income and homeless people. Sanders worked in the organization\u2019s clinic and helped clients fill out paperwork to enroll in various \u201cpatient assistance programs,\u201d through which many drug companies provide free medication to people in financial need.<\/p>\n

Sanders found herself working on the same issue from a very different angle: the redesign of her own company\u2019s patient-assistance program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe regulation has changed since I was doing it [in Washington], but it was interesting to work on the other side of it,\u201d she said, noting that her experience helping patients enroll in programs like the one she\u2019s redesigned played a role in the decisions she made.<\/p>\n

Journalism<\/h3>\n
\"Samantha

Samantha Cole \u201911, pictured at left, did her internship at Al Jazeera during the 2011 “Arab Spring.” She is now a reporter at the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Va.<\/p><\/div>\n

As an intern in the interview production department of the Al Jazeera English network, Samantha Cole \u201911<\/strong> lined up experts on various topics to speak on-air to the station\u2019s anchors during her semester in the WCSC program.<\/p>\n

The spring of 2011 was a momentous time to be at the network. As the events of the Arab Spring unfolded, the routine rush of \u201canswering three phones at once would pause, to watch what was happening on our own coverage: our reporters being beaten by police, satellite trucks burning, revolutionaries waving banners with the Al Jazeera logo. It was surreal to be on the other side of the camera, helping give voice to the long unheard,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Soon after her semester in Washington ended, Cole began working as a features writer for the Daily News-Record back on EMU\u2019s home turf in Harrisonburg.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy internship definitely played a part in sticking with journalism. I learned the importance of thorough, careful retelling of stories. Sources aren\u2019t just soundbites, but people who trust the journalist with the most precious thing they own: their story,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Natural Resource Management<\/h3>\n
\"Justin

Justin Hawkins \u201906, a native of Harrisonburg, Va., started as an intern with the U.S. Forest Service and now manages eight campgrounds and other recreational facilities, serving 100,000 to 200,000 visitors, on federally owned land near Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.<\/p><\/div>\n

Working for the U.S. Forest Service in its International Programs office, Justin Hawkins \u201906<\/strong> had an opportunity to learn more about the behind-the-scenes workings of the agency he still works for. Now based in Cody, Wyoming, as a supervisory recreation technician for the Shoshone National Forest, Hawkins manages eight campgrounds and other recreational facilities near Yellowstone National Park that serve 100,000 to 200,000 visitors each year. While his work in the field now bears little similarity to his day-to-day tasks as an intern, the experience gave him broader understanding of the Forest Service as well as a \u201cfoot in the door\u201d that helped him land the job in Wyoming after graduating from EMU.<\/p>\n

Digital Media<\/h3>\n

Mark Fenton \u201910<\/strong> sees a clear line from his internship with Bread for the World to his job as a media specialist with a marketing agency in Harrisonburg. At Bread for the World, Fenton worked in a variety of digital media to support the organization\u2019s marketing and communications efforts. Focusing primarily on photography, Fenton helped the organization develop a photography database. His pictures appeared in numerous Bread for the World publications. In his current job, he works on a variety of projects that include email marketing, web strategy and video production for his agency\u2019s clients.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe internship helped me step into the working world,\u201d Fenton said. \u201cIt gave me experience in a real work setting, with demands and deadlines . . . . It helped push me to become more persistent, hard-working and confident.\u201d<\/p>\n

Physical Therapy<\/h3>\n

Entering her WSSY experience in 1988, Amy Smith \u201990 Mumbauer<\/strong> was trying to decide whether she wanted to pursue graduate study in medicine or physical therapy. Her internship, assisting a physical therapist at an Easter Seals preschool in Washington, made the choice an easy one.<\/p>\n

\u201cMrs. Horowitz [her supervisor] taught me how to provide hands-on care for children with disabilities,\u201d said Mumbauer, who went on to graduate school in physical therapy and has spent much of the past 20 years working in adult rehabilitation and orthopedics. \u201cThe handling skills that I learned in my internship with the children have been useful to me in many settings. . . . Communicating with patients and families, as I watched Mrs. Horowitz do, is a skill that I use daily.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guidance Counseling\/Coaching<\/h3>\n

It was at Archbishop John Carroll Catholic High School in Washington, D.C. where Dwight Gingerich \u201981<\/strong> first discovered the similarities between counseling and coaching. Splitting his internship between the guidance office and assisting the varsity basketball team during the school\u2019s run to the city basketball championship game, Gingerich learned that effective listening and benevolence are characteristics equally important to counselors and coaches. Now a guidance counselor, athletic director and head boys basketball coach at Iowa Mennonite School, Gingerich said that lessons he learned in Washington remain as relevant in rural Iowa as they were more than three decades ago in the inner city.<\/p>\n

Information Technology<\/h3>\n
\"Francis

Francis Johnson \u201907 started as an intern at 501c TECH and was hired into a full-time job there, where he continues to work. He is now a senior engineer.<\/p><\/div>\n

Francis Johnson \u201907<\/strong> enjoys an extremely close connection between his internship through WCSC and his job today as an IT engineer in Washington D.C. \u2013 he was hired on at 501cTECH full-time a week after his internship there ended. The nonprofit organization, formerly known as NPower Greater DC Region, provides IT support and services to other nonprofits across the D.C. metro area.<\/p>\n

Johnson entered WCSC for his final semester of college knowing the internship would provide him with real-world experience, and he hoped, lead to post-college job opportunities. Getting hired directly by his internship, he said, was a best-case scenario.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I hoped would happen with the WCSC program,\u201d said Johnson, a senior 501cTECH engineer, who works with clients on technical support, network maintenance, assessments and other projects.<\/p>\n

Learning how to live and interact with a large group of fellow students, plus taking classes at Howard University, made his experience in D.C. worth it for more than the job he landed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI benefitted in many ways,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI\u2019d do it again \u2013 not just because of the great job opportunity, but because of the other unique experiences that came with it.\u201d \u2014 Andrew Jenner ’04<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis program\u00a0is for any EMU student,\u201d says former WCSC associate director Doug Hertzler \u201988. \u201cYou can position yourself to do anything you want after college through this program.\u201d Hertzler himself is a case in point: he interned with Washington Inner City Self-Help while a student in the then-named WSSY program during the 1986-87 school year, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":1425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[277,273,278,272,279,275,276,274],"class_list":["post-1423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","tag-amy-smith-mumbauer","tag-doug-hertzler","tag-dwight-gingerich","tag-fikir-tilahun-sanders","tag-francis-johnson","tag-justin-hawkins","tag-mark-fenton","tag-samantha-cole","issues-fallwinter-2012-13"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1423"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1630,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423\/revisions\/1630"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}