By Olivia O’Donnell
After surviving final exams during 2024 semester, junior Nafia Khan was beginning to work as a research assistant for a neuroscience clinic at the University of Illinois Chicago.
“For around eight hours a day, I interned instead of sleeping in,” Khan said.
Last summer, Khan was one of 68 students completing internships for credit. Students interned at companies such as Deloitte, Arco Murray, and AMR real estate.
Kathy Meisinger, career programs & employer relations director, said Dominican staff help students find internships relevant to their majors.
“Internships can take place at any time,” she said. “We try to fit internships in semesters, but in the summer, we have three internship schedules that we normally follow. We typically have internships happen during the same time as [a] student’s internship classes. The purpose of that is to expose students to professional environments under the watchful eye of their instructor.”
Business and STEM majors are some of the many that require an internship in order for students to graduate. However, starting this year, all current freshmen are required to participate in an internship to fulfill their core requirements.
“Over the last five years, [interns] have been evaluated and received access into graduate school and post baccalaureate full-time employment at a higher rate than students who didn’t intern,” she said.
Meisinger also said that the faculty voted for every incoming freshman student to complete an internship.
For Khan, the experience was a tradeoff.
While their friends relaxed on the beach, Khan, who is a neuroscience major, was working hard at work.
Their internship was not required of their major, but they decided to do it anyway. For eight weeks, Khan woke up at 6 a.m., commuted a long distance, and shadowed multiple healthcare providers.
“I would [work] on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. [When] I [got] there, there [was] a morning meeting, where the professor, Kyle Duncan, would administer each case per day,” Khan said. “If there was an interesting case going on, I would watch that.”
Khan thought their internship was worth the commitment and encouraged other students, especially STEM majors, to seek out an internship.
Beginning with the class of 2028, Dominican’s new core curriculum requires all students to complete an internship course by their senior year.
Eric Borsche, assistant director of student employment, said he thinks the new requirements help students become successful with their future.
“I would love our students to do two or three internships before they graduate to really narrow down their exact fields,” he explained. “I help students secure internships with a lot of employment partners that I use as a primary source. Students can use secondary sources like Handshake and LinkedIn to find internship opportunities and bring them to us for review.”
