From handling daycare at a nursery to helping crime victims through a DA's office, to interviewing members of Congress, to helping revitalize a city, to helping offenders find alternatives to prison, internships are a vibrant chapter in the lives of many Union students. We talked with five of them about their involvement in the city.
A perfect fit at the
Schenectady Day Nursery
Adriana Zavala '03 had two finals the last Friday of the fall term, but between the two she chose to work with “her” infants and toddlers one last time.
“It's so hard to leave,” she sighs. “I've seen some of them grow up!”
Zavala interned at the Sche-nectady Day Nursery over the summer, and was invited to return part time in the fall, this time for pay. “I can't imagine her not working there,” comments Assistant Professor of Sociology Melinda Goldner, her academic adviser. “She just comes alive when she talks about it. It's a perfect fit for her.
“What's nice about this internship is she can test out
a potential career,” Goldner continues. “She can also develop leadership skills, organizational skills, and can take them into any career she pursues. Often we think of internships as leading to specific careers-and that's great when it happens, but it isn't necessary. ”
Zavala, a sociology major and Japanese minor who is interested in child development, got to work in the infant and toddler section of the nursery, a nonprofit agency that serves local families, about ninety percent of whom are in financial need. Fleet Bank gave the College money for six internships last summer, enabling Zavala and five other students to work at various local agencies. “The agencies got a free employee, and we gained experience,” she says.
Zavala is planning on taking some time off after graduation, possibly to work in social services. “I'm still exploring the field. I want to get as much experience as I can, especially with low-income families.”
“It's important to add,” points out Goldner, “that students like Adriana aren't doing this just to get job experience – they're idealistic and energetic, and they really want to help.”
Advocating for victims at the Rensselaer County District Attorney's Office
“It was essentially a real-life 'Law and Order' Special
Victims Unit,” comments Stephanie Block '03, summarizing her internship in the Rensselaer County District Attorney's office.
Working as a victims' advocate gave the psychology major a dramatic chance to pursue dual interests in psychology and the law. She was part of the Victims Assistance Program, a team that helps victims cope as well as testify, and makes sure that restraining orders are enforced. The team helps provide continuity after law enforcement arrives on the scene, recognizing that victims need all kinds of help.
The first few days on the job, Block spent reading about victims' rights in the criminal justice system, and separating forms on child abuse into categories. “Gradually, they began to let me speak with the victims on the phone, and sit in on counseling sessions, and then meet with them. I had the opportunity to go to court-I sat in on pre-trials and trials. It was a great opportunity to learn about the judicial system and to make a contribution.”
Block was involved in some high-profile case, according to her academic adviser, Linda Stanhope of the Psychology Department, with whom she discussed her interviews with victims. Block was able to speak with prosecutors about the cases, and sit with lawyers over lunch and pick their brains.
In this real-world setting, she was faced with some complex issues: How do you define a battered woman? How much pressure do you put on her to testify? And what is the greater good? And she was surprised at how much personal contact she had with victims of domestic violence. “It was incredibly disturbing, and it also showed me how passionate I felt about this work. ”
The internship has influenced Block's academic and career directions. “I can see myself being a prosecutor one day.” But for now, she is considering Ph.D. programs in psychology, and possibly law school after that.
Helping to bring back
downtown Schenectady
Steve Erickson '03 is working to help revitalize a city.
An economics major, he's serving as an intern, along with classmates Xilong He and Jonathan Menz, at the Downtown Schenectady Improvement Corp., an organization that promotes Schenectady as rich in history, culture, infrastructure, and opportunity.
Erickson goes out and talks with businesses, trying to interest them in locating in downtown Schenectady. He also promotes and takes photos of local businesses that are already in place. He's been able to build on personal skills in his work, and has experienced a lot of freedom and opportunity to be creative.
In short, he says, he's “glad I got assigned to this job.”
Erickson has noticed many new businesses and positive changes in the city. From his perspective, is Schenectady coming back? “I think so. From what I've seen-with the planned new movie theaters, and the expansion of Proctor's and Schenectady County Community College-in ten years this place should be amazing!”
Erickson's adviser is Harold Fried, professor of economics, who offers an economic internship course every winter. Says Fried, “Most students find the internship experience pretty eye-opening. Being in the trenches can change their minds about what they want to do. It's also a big commitment-ten to twelve hours a week on the job, plus weekly classes and required readings, reports, journaling, papers, and presentations.”
Washington media.
Combining politics and
writing at the Congressional Quarterly
Ask Sue Drossman '02 about her Washington internship with Congressional Quarterly and she excitedly tells you that this was where “I learned what true journalism is all about.” She laughs as she recalls “having pieces ripped apart that I thought had no political bias whatsoever.”
Drossman talks about the day she learned the most about politics: “I was trying
to summarize a House Resolution that I was asked to do ASAP. But I had no leads, and the office had no idea what bill was about. The Committee had no clue either. By lunchtime, my editor and I realized that we'd have to figure out which lobbying group it had come from. I wound up calling every welfare-based think tank in Washington. Looking back-imagine a nineteen-year-old conducting interviews-I still can't believe I could handle this!”
Drossman came to Union as an English major, took Introduction to American Politics, and fell in love with both writing and politics. So it made sense to apply for an internship at CQ, probably the top political informational source in the country. She won the David S. Kaplan Internship, which allowed her to go to Washington. (The Kaplan Internship was created to honor the late David S. Kaplan, a Union alum who had also interned at CQ and went to work there after
he graduated.)
Professor Zoe Oxley, of the Political Science Department, was Drossman's academic adviser. “Many organizations in Washington have come to rely on interns for a significant part of their work,” she says. “And the students get hands-on political experience, applying what they've been learning, seeing what really goes on, and reflecting on it. It's good for personal and career development. And for faculty, we get to know students in a different context, and we get to know them very well.”
Drossman is now a first-year Ph.D. student at SUNY Albany, focusing on political theory and teaching an introductory course to American politics. She says the Washington experience was invaluable in many ways: “It also made me realize that this wasn't exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I realized that a more philosophical, academic track was for me -rather than the hustle and bustle of politics.”
offering alternatives to prison.
Getting an insider's look at the criminal justice system
On Barrett Street, a narrow side street just off State Street in downtown Schenectady, Tamara Carl '04 is working with the staff at the Center for Law, Order, and Justice through several programs that offer alternatives to prison. She loves the work so much that she plans to come back after her internship-as a volunteer -and she's trying to interest her sorority in volunteering.
Says Carl, “You get to see lawyers and judges in action. I always sit next to the D.A. in court [where the LOJ representatives sit].” Points out Professor John Zumbrunnen, coordinator of internships in the City of Schenectady for the Political Science Department and Carl's adviser, “She's getting a different view of the criminal justice system.”
Carl works wherever LOJ staff need her in the alternatives to sentencing programs: bail assistance, community service (offenders repay the community for their crimes by working for government and nonprofit agencies in lieu of fines or prison), restitution (offenders repay their victims through financial reparations as an alternative to prison), and diversion (an educational program that teaches children and first-time adult offenders about the consequences of criminal behavior
-“they watch videos, go to meetings, visit jails, and get a hard look at what they could be facing if they don't shape up”).
She also sits in on noncustodial visitations at LOJ-with children and parents or grandparents-and writes up the visits. “It's fun working here-people really care and it shows.”
Carl, a political science major and a theater minor, plans to go to law school and become a corporate lawyer.
In a research project she was part of at LOJ, Carl reviewed several years' worth of intake forms to uncover basic trends for four of its programs- looking at factors such as
race, age, gender, season, judge, court, and whether public or private attorneys were involved. Explains Zumbrunnen, “The students work on projects that will be significant to the people they're working for. We ask them, is there anything you want to know? This way, we're serving Union and the community.”
In his work supervising interns, Zumbrunnen has
discovered, “There are a lot
of opportunities around Sche-nectady-it's a matter of going out and finding them. The nonprofits are desperate for help. And it tends to be the case that once you send them one Union student,
they want more. ”
Zumbrunnen has just been named to LOJ 's board of directors: “Beyond an opportunity to work with what I think is an excellent organization, I see serving on the board as a way to make connections with folks in the community to find more opportunities for our students to do work of the sort Tamara is involved in.”