The Career and Professional Readiness Center (CPRC) announced the winners of the Intern Spotlight Competition on Sept. 26. The competition is held to recognize students’ outstanding internship achievements, while promoting these great experiences to the Bonaventure community.
Pam Ferman, Career Counselor and Employer Relations Coordinator, explained the process of choosing the winners.
“We wanted to pick out the students who really articulate to us what they learned from the opportunity in terms of professional development and how it’s either reinforced or developed their transition for the skill sets they need for their career,” Ferman said.
Winners of this year’s competition are Emma Zaremba, Stephanie Jenkins, Colleen Guilfoyle, Jason Damon and Sebastian Bellm. Zaremba spent the summer as an event management intern for the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open, while Jenkins was a human resource intern at Owens Illinois. Damon had an internship as a policy intern for the Knights of Columbus Public Policy Office. Bellm served as a felony trial division intern at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and Guilfoyle was a Research Intern at the Dolphin Research Center.
The winning students shared their experiences and how these internships have helped them with their career paths.
Bellm, a junior finance and accounting major, spent his summer as a felony trial division intern in a busy law office in Chicago, Ill. He explained that he dealt with both misdemeanor and felony charges and spent the majority of his day in the courtroom.
“Every morning from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. was spent in the courtroom, and the rest of the day was spent planning for tomorrow’s trials and cases,” Bellm said.
The internship forced Bellm to think and act in a real world environment, which gave him valuable experience.
“It taught me a lot of critical thinking skills,” Bellm said. “What we do at school is supposed to prepare us for the real world, but it will never replace the experience you get working in an internship.”
Guilfoyle, senior biology major, enjoyed a summer in Grassy Key, Fla. as a research intern at the Dolphin Research Center. She bonded with dolphins and also learned a great deal about them.
“I spent a lot of time playing games with dolphins and figuring out how they could solve puzzles,” Guilfoyle said.
Like Bellm, she affirmed that the internship helped clarify her career path.
“It helped ignite a passion.” Guilfoyle said. “The people I worked with, the internship coordinators at the research center, and my internship coach especially really drive you to find what you love and they make sure that you don’t let anything get in the way of that.”
Guilfoyle and Bellm, along with the three other winners, will attend the internship summit in October, where they will share their experiences with other interns. In addition, the winners will be presented with a leather bound portfolio and have their pictures on the intern wall of fame.
