Josephine Hulburd Schultz: Creating and Applying Value My SVCN Internship
My internship through the LSB Community Fellows Program has given me insight into my future career planning and enabled me to apply my skills as a business school student in real time. Business 179 (Effective Communication in Business) was a class I took as a sophomore in which I learned a lot of practical knowledge about effectively communicating as a professional businessperson. When skills are not applied they easily get lost in memory and buried underneath the loads of information we take in as college students. Fortunately, I use business writing skills everyday in my internship. Whether talking to my supervisor, co-workers, members and clients, and partner organizations, I feel prepared and professional.
As a senior, the thought of transitioning from university to worklife is daunting. The ability to use this internship as a tool to understand life after college eases my mind. My supervisor often asks me about my aspirations in the future and allows me to explore my interest within the organization. This winter quarter, I was in a Human Resources Management class. I quickly became interested in the topic as I learned more. Because of that class, I have become interested in HR as a career path, especially in terms of culture building and diversity, equity, and inclusion work. I expressed my newfound interest to my supervisor and she assigned me diversity and inclusion research work that I could use to apply my new knowledge and explore this potential career opportunity.
Through my internship at Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits, I have honed my research, writing, and professional communication skills. Most importantly, I have learned to be an ally and advocate in the social issues I am passionate about. My research and communications have focused on the issues that impact the Bay Area such as homelessness, early childhood education, food access, and public health in the wake of the coronavirus. I am empowered to address these issues in a way that is informative and effective. I believe the activities of my internship reflect SCU’s Jesuit values of compassion and community.