4th year student Nigel completed his internship at the Pacific Science Center in downtown Seattle as both a Guest Ambassador and in Guest Services Data Entry. He shares part of his experience below:
How does what you did or learned at your internship fit in with your career goals?
On Fridays I work in the human resources office of the science center, entering data into the computer charts. The things I learned when doing that fit in with my career goals since one of my career goals is to be an office assistant, and one of the tasks involved in that job is entering data into charts on the computer which I have experience with because my internship involved it. Likewise, I could also use my experiences as a guest ambassador to help me when interacting with clients at whatever company I end up working at in the future.
What skills that you acquired during the OLS program were useful to you at your internship?
One skill that I have acquired on during my time in the OLS program is planning & time management. It was useful to me at my internship, and over time in my internship I have greatly improved on this skill. There were a few times in my internship when I took a lunch break that ended up being a little too long, but I decided to work on that, and since then I’ve made sure that I haven’t had any lunch breaks that were too long, so this is a great example of me identifying something that I could improve on and then making a positive change. Another skill is being punctual and on time, and ever since the first day of my internship I haven’t had any days at all where I came in late, and I think part of this is because it’s a skill that I had also acquired at OLS.
Share one story or special moment that has special meaning to you from your internship
One special moment that has special meaning to me from my internship was when I got to show a hissing cockroach from the Island of Madagascar to a bunch of kids. I also let them hold it and it was very amusing to see the kid’s reactions which varied from being amazed by the insects to being disgusted. There was this one kid who I handed the cockroach to, and he got scared because he thought it was poisonous and that it was going to bite him and kill him, which was funny because if the insect really was poisonous then obviously I wouldn’t be letting kids hold it. I told the kid not to worry and that the insect he was holding wasn’t dangerous and in the end, the kid relaxed and got used to holding the cockroach. Afterwards, he even wanted to hold it again, showing that he was no longer scared, which was great.
OLS Students complete a 200-hour internship in their 4th year of our program. We partner with local businesses to provide students an internship related to their career pathway. For more information on internships in our program, please visit our Internship Page.
You can learn more about becoming an OLS Student by registering for an Information Session.
Last Updated August 1, 2018