Intern­ship Insights
BY MARK GREGORIO

Tommi Barrett-Greenly ’09 interns with NASA.

Stu­dents receive world class oppor­tu­ni­ties through intern­ships and research programs.Traditionally, research oppor­tu­ni­ties on col­lege cam­puses, espe­cially at large research uni­ver­si­ties, are the priv­i­lege of  grad­u­ate stu­dents or fac­ulty. How­ever, in recent years, insti­tu­tions like Wes­ley have sought to engage under­grad­u­ate stu­dents in research and cre­ative discov­ery by pro­vid­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for them to work with fac­ulty men­tors or to con­duct their own inquiries with the guid­ance of pro­fes­sors. In this way, what stu­dents learn in the class­room is made rel­e­vant as they work closely with those on the cut­ting edge of their discipline.

Stu­dents who attend Wes­ley are intro­duced early to the world of intern­ships and research. For exam­ple, the College’s Sci­ence Depart­ment offers qual­i­fied under­grad­u­ates the oppor­tu­nity to become research assis­tants and par­tic­i­pate in a wide vari­ety of high-level sci­ence exper­i­ments. Dur­ing a typ­i­cal aca­d­e­mic year, research assis­tants with a grade point aver­age of 3.0 or higher will work in a lab set­ting for approx­i­mately 10 to 15 hours per week, receive two aca­demic cred­its and get paid $10 per hour for their work. Under­grad­u­ate research pro­vides many other perks, as stu­dents get to travel across the coun­try and present their find­ings to a panel of experts at national conferences.

Being at the right place at the right time also pays off for sci­ence majors. Dur­ing the sum­mer, the Col­lege offers a 10-week sum­mer intern­ship pro­gram where stu­dents can earn up to $6,000 and gain valu­able research expe­ri­ence with orga­ni­za­tions like the Delaware Biotech­nol­ogy Insti­tute, NASA, Chris­tiana Hos­pi­tal, Quest Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, Ameri­Corps and the Alfred I. DuPont Hos­pi­tal for Children.

Get­ting a jump start on the job mar­ket is equally impor­tant, as Wes­ley stu­dents can vouch for hav­ing research expe­ri­ence under their belts when seek­ing employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties after grad­u­a­tion. Dr. Mal­colm D’Souza, a chem­istry pro­fes­sor at Wes­ley, knows that phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal and biotech­nol­ogy indus­tries gen­er­ally will not hire grad­u­ates with­out the prop­er under­grad­u­ate research back­ground. “Stu­dents who have research expe­ri­ence are more likely to get absorbed quickly by com­pa­nies and grad­u­ate schools than those with­out any expe­ri­ence,” he said. Work­ing closely with fac­ulty, these stu­dent researchers have an added advan­tage in get­ting in to grad­u­ate school or land­ing a job because of the like­li­hood of get­ting a strong rec­om­men­da­tion from the pro­fes­sors with whom they have con-ducted research.

Col­lege offi­cials also credit the school’s Nurs­ing Depart­ment with pro­vid­ing its stu­dents the chance to develop and hone their pro­fes­sional skills. With a Mas­ter of Sci­ence in Nurs­ing degree pro­gram that is nationally-ranked by U.S. News & World Report, the Wes­ley Nurs­ing Department’s 225 under­grad­u­ate stu­dents and 80 master’s can­di­dates are afforded unique oppor­tu­ni­ties for clin­i­cal and research expe­ri­ence across the state and in Mary­land and Penn­syl­va­nia. They par­tic­i­pate in and observe clin­i­cal inter­ven­tions in a vari­ety of health care set­tings such as the Crozier-Chester Burn Unit in Penn­syl­va­nia. Wes­ley nurs­ing stu­dents often attend local and national con­fer­ences through pro­fes­sional orga­ni­za­tions like the National Stu­dent Nurses Asso­ci­a­tion, and some have even stud­ied abroad in hos­pice set­tings in England.

Matthew McA­neny, Ste­fan Hai­ley, Jor­dan Wheat­ley, Anthony Dar­ring­ton and Brian Mahon

Dr. Lucille Gam­bardella, nurs­ing pro­fes­sor and depart­ment chair, noted that the Col­lege encour­ages stu­dents to be con­nected to the Delaware com­mu­nity through ser­vice so that they can gain prac­ti­cal expe­ri­ence in the health care pro­fes­sion. One way is through a fun learn­ing envi­ron­ment, where Wes­ley nurs­ing stu­dents attend health fairs and pro­vide prac­ti­cal infor­ma­tion to the cam-pus com­mu­nity on how to stay healthy and pre­vent ill­ness. Each year, they hold a depres­sion screen­ing on the Wes­ley cam­pus to iden­tify stu­dents who might be expe­ri­enc­ing sad­ness they can­not han­dle on their own. For the past eight years, Wes­ley nurs­ing under­grad­u­ates have screened the largest num­ber of indi-viduals at any screen­ing in the state and have received spe­cial recog­ni­tion from the Delaware Men­tal Health Asso­ci­a­tion for their efforts.

For many col­lege stu­dents, the first chance to apply text­book knowl­edge to a real world set­ting can be life-changing. For the past twenty years, the His­tory Depart­ment at Wes­ley has offered stu­dents the oppor­tu­nity to earn aca­d­e­mic credit through intern­ships with local agen­cies and muse­ums such as the Delaware Divi­sion of His­tor­i­cal and Cul­tural Affairs, the Biggs Museum, John Dick­in­son Plan­ta­tion and the Air Mobil­ity Com­mand Museum. Also, through an appli­ca­tion process, qual­i­fied his­tory majors can get an inside look at the polit­i­cal process by work­ing as gov­ern­ment interns at either the local or fed­eral level. Stu­dents gain credit dur­ing the year by sup­port­ing leg­isla­tive staff and address­ing con­stituent con­cerns, mon­i­tor­ing news out­lets for daily devel­op­ments and attend­ing polit­i­cal events such as town hall meetings.

Wes­ley pro­fes­sors help stu­dents start net­work­ing pro­fes­sion­ally through clini­cal expe­ri­ence and intern­ships and these out-of-classroom expe­ri­ences pay huge div­i­dends for stu­dents after grad­u­a­tion. Stu­dents credit the hands-on learn­ing that occurs with help­ing them learn to work in a team atmos­phere, to multi-task and bal­ance var­i­ous aspects of their lives, and to find renewed inter­est in their fields. Senior his­tory major Ross Luzey said, “My intern­ship at Fort Delaware is giv­ing me insight into the work­ings of a state or national park. Hope­fully by the time I grad­u­ate, the expe­ri­ence will point me toward a future career.”