Sophia Ferens, majoring in Environmental Science
Huntley Meadows Park
When I began my internship at the start of the summer, I didn’t know what a typical day would look like while working at Huntley Meadows Park. Excitingly enough for me, there was no “typical day” in terms of the work we were doing at the park. Some days involved smaller tasks, like trail maintenance, spraying herbicide on invasive, or setting up exclusion fencing to prevent beavers and Canadian geese from destroying important native plant species. On other days I was doing something completely new, like going to a different Fairfax County Park and hand pulling water chestnuts (an invasive plant species in Virginia) in a lake while balanced precariously in a kayak.
Meghan McLees, majoring in Psychology
Youth Life Foundation of Richmond
Interning at the Youth Life Foundation of Richmond (YLFR) has brought up numerous topics that I have learned about previously as a psychology major. For example, one of the topics we discussed in one of my development classes was how learning can be different for each individual child.
The kids that I have been working with are from the ages of 6-10 years old, which encompasses middle to late childhood. These students are actually bilingual in Spanish and English, or are learning to speak English. Since most of them live with parents that speak do not speak English, it's hard for them in the school system. In their school, there are no bilingual teachers or anyone to translate the information to these students.
Kathryn Toigo majoring in Business Administration/minoring in Economics
Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park
One of the many reasons I wanted to do an internship was to experience a different work environment. I’ve worked as a hairstylist since I was seventeen years old. It’s the only job experience I’ve had, and I wanted to experience the complete opposite of the service industry.
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Laura Solis Ulloa, Anthropology major
Downtown Greens Fredericksburg
Looking back, after having completed my internship with Downtown Greens as a Garden Education intern, the opportunity was one I could not have missed.
In the spring semester of 2022, I took an anthropology course with Professor Mentore here at UMW which was centered around the topic of the Age of the Anthropocene. A large portion of the course was focused on Permaculture design principles, which can be explained more simply as strategic sustainable agriculture designs. Professor Mentore had the class take a trip to Downtown Greens and analyze the locations and existence of water sources, wind patterns, human pathways, sun patterns, etc. I fell in love with the greenspace at Downtown Greens and knew I wanted to be more involved with the organization. I followed them on Instagram and learned that they were taking applications for various internship positions. I then applied to the Garden Education intern position due to my experience of working with children. From there, the rest is history!
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Evelyn Tillinghast, majoring in History
Yarmouth History Center
I have already talked about how I found the opportunity for my internship at the Yarmouth History Center, so now I’d like to share how I found the grant opportunity. At first, I was not sure where to look. I had checked several places on campus where I thought it would be (both on the campus website and in person), but I was not finding anything that looked like it could help me specifically.
For a while, I was not even sure if I would be working at the Yarmouth History Center as an intern–the director of the History Center was very understanding and said I could work as a volunteer for the summer.
Olivia Lewis, majoring in Political Science
Abigail Spanberger’s Campaign
While interning at the Fredericksburg field office for Congress member Abigail Spanberger, I have learned that there is never a dull moment! Most days when I head into the office, I leave my home around 11:30am to arrive at noon. Once I get there, we have our daily meeting to discuss our goals for the day, what everyone’s tasks are, any upcoming events that we can attend or help run, and conversations that we are having with voters. As I write this post, we are in the persuasion stage of the campaign where we are talking with voters that are either independents, undecided, or have voted for both parties throughout their years of voting. These voters are extremely important to reach because they can lean either way and can determine whether or not Abigail keeps her seat in Congress.
Delaney Dunnigan, majoring in American Studies
James Monroe Museum
Interning with the James Monroe Museum has been wonderful; they have helped me learns so much about a potential career in museums. In the time since I wrote my first blog post, I was included in talks with the director of the James Monroe Museum, the James Farmer Multicultural Center, and the guest speaker we are planning on hosting for Native American History Month. The conversations that we had during the planning process were extremely enlightening. For example, part of the discussion touched upon needing to be aware of how sensitive the content we are planning on highlighting can be. This in turn lent itself to including the Talley Center in this program to ensure that there would be a safe space for people to discuss how the content has impacted them.
Noah Adcock-Howeth, majoring in Business Administration
Lexington County Blowfish of the Coastal Plain League (CPL)
As July wrapped up, my time with the Lexington County Blowfish officially came to a close. From broadcasting to sales training to guest playing on the actual roster, it feels like I’ve done just about everything this summer. I’d like to use this blog post to look back at how exactly I came to find myself two states and seven hours away from Fredericksburg, working in a front office that had never once heard of Mary Washington, the school or the person.
Brianna D’Albis, Business Administration (Marketing) major
All In Solutions and Spotsylvania Farmers Market
“A Day in the Life” of a marketing intern, over two days since I was extra and took on two internships.
Friday: All In Solutions, Marketing Intern
8:00: (This is in the a.m., in case you were wondering). I wake up and spend fifteen minutes playing snooze tag. As this is a virtual internship, I can spend the time I would be commuting, contemplating life from my bed.
9:00: I get on my work laptop with my coffee in hand.
Hannah Abraham, majoring in Sociology
Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank
My internship at the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank has continued to be a rewarding experience. More surveys have been collected and more people are being fed each day without the burden of not knowing where there next meal will originate.
I knew I wanted to have an internship this summer doing something related to my major. After researching places near Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, and Stafford, I started emailing different homeless shelters, shelters for women experiencing domestic violence, social services, and food banks. I heard back from many who said they already had interns for the summer, didn’t offer any internships, or simply didn’t respond to my many emails.
Emma Dabolt, majoring in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Rappahannock Council against Sexual Assault (RCASA)
As a Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies major, my internship at Rappahannock Council Against Sexual Assault (RCASA) has greatly related to my courses. RCASA provides support services to survivors of sexual violence and their loved ones, as well as educational services to help inform people about the intricacies of sexual violence. These include but are not limited to how to support individuals who have experienced sexual violence, who is impacted by sexual violence, and what societal factors impact sexual violence.
Clare Lewis, majored in History
Happy Erasmus Bilbao
While I didn’t fully realize this previously, over the past few weeks of interning at Happy Erasmus Bilbao, I’ve learned that the fields of diplomacy and tourism overlap quite a bit. While studying UMW, I focused on the political and historical aspects of Hispanic and Asian countries. Before arriving in Bilbao, Spain, I hoped to intern at a company related to the fields of law, foreign affairs, history, or politics. However, I was instead assigned to a student travel agency. Even though I did not see a connection between the internship and my studies, I happily accepted the position. As I worked, I began to realize that my internship was unusually relevant to what I had learned at UMW.
Patrick Smedley, majoring in Business Administration
The Hoop Group
The internship I did this summer at The Hoop Group has allowed me to experience a lot of different concepts taught in my classes and brought them to life. The area where I saw the biggest overlap between class concepts and real life experiences was with my class in events and facilities management, which largely described the actions I performed as an operations intern. In this class, I learned about the 5 Cs of event management:
Concept
Coordination
Control
Culmination
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