Ready to get inspired for your job, internship, or career search? Each month we will spotlight an OSU student that has inspired us when it comes to their career development. Check out their success stories—besides inspiration, they also show that academic major does not have to restrict your goals and that there are many ways to define success.

Want to nominate an OSU student or alum for the Student/Alum Spotlight series? Or do you want to share your own success? Then please fill out this quick form and Career Services will contact the person nominated.

Name:  Jessica Hua
Major: Public Health & International Studies
Year in school: Junior
Internship: South Africa: Pre-Med Rotations

1.        How did you find out about the internship?
It has always been a dream of mine to go to Africa to volunteer and now, I’ve been given the amazing opportunity to serve as an intern with Child Health Family International and IE3 Global Internships.  I discovered this internship primarily through a career fair last winter while visiting IE3 Global Internship’s booth.  There, the representatives gave me pamphlets and flyers leading me to further resources online, which all helped me find the program I was passionate about.

2.        What will you be doing in your position?
Within this internship, I will be traveling to both Durban and Cape Town.  Starting off in Durban, I will be working on community development projects to identify the post-apartheid public healthcare system revolving around HIV/AIDS, environmental health, and other underlying causes.  In Cape Town, I’ll be rotating through various clinics, hospitals, and emergency services to shadow health professionals to follow patients through their treatments while observing the healthcare team.

3.        What advice do you have for others interested in finding an internship?
The best advice I have for others trying to find an internship is to not be afraid to ask for help or fail.  I wouldn’t be anywhere today if I didn’t reach out to others for help, whether it be to ask for a second opinion, for a reference letter, or to find out more about a program.  Everyone genuinely wants to see you succeed and will help in any way they can.  Besides, the worst thing that someone can say is that they don’t have the time to help, which in that case you just continue to ask others for help- which leads me to say that we can’t be afraid of failure.  It has always been one of my biggest fears but without failure also means we do not learn because we have nothing to build upon.  I’ve looked and applied to internships before this and have been denied positions.  Despite the feelings of disappointment I had felt, failure works to our advantage because success will come to us at the right time through hard work and determination.

4.        Did Career Services assist you anyway? If so, how?
Career Services played such a big role in helping me get this internship!  Right from the beginning, they were already helping me with this internship because they are the ones who host career fairs.  Following that, the internship application required a resume and cover letter so my friend had suggested me to visit Career Services because they are a great resource to proofread those kinds of papers.  I had never gone to Career Services before but the process in setting up an appointment was very easy through Beaver JobNet.  There, I met with Jen and she was an amazing help in making my resume and cover letter the best that it can be.  I was a little shocked at first when she scratched up my initial resume, which I thought was pretty decent, but it looks so much better now.  Jen was really great in her willingness to help someone she just met; she was friendly, welcoming, and genuinely wanted to hear the goals I had accomplished which I included in my resume.  She was flexible with my constant emails after our initial meeting to read over the many “final” drafts and offered me advice on how to keep improving my speech.  I couldn’t have done it without Jen; Career Services was definitely a very big factor in my internship process and I am very glad that I went in to see them.

Thanks Jessica for being our Student/Alum Spotlight! If you are interested in learning more about internships,  there are many resources available to you on the OSU Career Services website. You can also find out about International Internship opportunities through IE3!