Internship - Part 1: Worries and Concerns

(Note: this actually happened early in my Fall 06 semester - I felt that it was needed for background.)

I'm a Paralegal Studies major, which is one of the majors at my college that require spending time working at an internship. I was very worried about the whole idea of doing an internship – because I wasn’t sure that I could even do it. Due to my disability, I have never been able to work before – so I had like no experience, so I had no idea what I might be expected to do. So I went to my department head and told her about my concerns.

She knew about my disability, so she understood my concerns. But she had also seen how I had excelled in college, so she told me that she believed that I would not have any trouble at all working as an intern. Ok, so maybe I can get through this. Now I just need to find someone to hire me (actually “hire” probably isn’t the correct term here – since most interns don’t get paid for their work ).

Most paralegal majors do their internship at a law office, or at a government agency. But my department head knew of my interest in public policy – so she offered me the chance to apply for an internship at the New Hampshire State House – doing research for the NH Senate. I immediately told her that I would love to work at the State House – so I took the forms back to my dorm and started filling them out.