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Internship Abroad

Mahi Pandey landed an international internship working with endangered cheetahs

Here’s how she did it and how you can, too.

A student on a wildlife preserve feeds cheetahs in an enclosure.
Mahi Pandey, a 2024 graduate of Oregon State’s Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Science program, helped care for cheetahs during her internship at the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia.

About Mahi: Class of 2024, Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Science major. An international student, Mahi is from the city of Lucknow in Utter Pradesh, India.

The internship: Wildlife conservation intern at Cheetah Conservation Fund, Namibia. 

“This internship was such an amazing experience,” she said. “I learned so much from all the rotations.”

Mahi did everything from caring for the 27 resident cheetahs to going out in the field to collect data. She also worked on the model farm – as part of the CCF’s mission to reduce conflict between farmers and wildlife, they breed livestock guarding dogs and place them with local farmers. 

“During one rotation, I was part of a puppy placement. I got to drop the livestock guarding dog puppy off with the farmer and learn more about the farms in Namibia and the ongoing human-wildlife conflict. That really made me fond of the model farm department,” she said. “Then there was also husbandry, which is working with the cheetahs, and that’s awesome. In the ecology department you work with data but also go out in the field. It was all very fascinating and interesting,”

Daily life in Namibia: Mahi lived in on-site housing – a small cottage – at the CCF facility and ate meals at a staff dining hall. The closest town, Ojiwagongo, was about 45 minutes away. 

Her fellow interns at the CCF came from all over the world (including one fellow intern from Oregon State), but they all communicated in English. Mahi said the relationships she built and the hours they spent talking around the campfire, singing karaoke, and playing card games, are some of her best memories.

“Usually I would take animals over humans any time,” Mahi said. “In some part of my mind, I thought that I would be going just to work with cheetahs and focus only on animals. But I was so wrong. I ended up making so many good friends and so many great memories. They were the friendliest people I’ve ever met – genuinely good people who genuinely care about nature.”

Two workers at the Cheetah Conservation Fund care for a cheetah lying on a table in a veterinary clinic.
Mahi’s internship with the Cheetah Conservation Foundation included rotations through several different functional areas of the program, including the on-site clinic.

How she found it: Mahi had already been successful in on-campus jobs, but she wanted to get experience related to her major and hadn’t had luck landing a conservation-focused internship. One morning, she was listening to a science video while getting ready for her day. Her ears perked up when she heard the zoologist in the video say that she’d attended Oregon State University and completed an internship working with cheetahs.

“I stopped getting ready and just turned all my attention to my phone,” she recalls. “I was like, ‘What? Cheetahs? Where, when, how? I want to know about it!” 

That day on campus, Mahi asked her advisor how she could find out more, and her advisor directed her to the Office of Global Opportunities – OSU GO. In addition to coordinating study abroad classes, OSU GO partners with trusted organizations to offer more than 100 international internships. Their internships can be as short as 4 weeks or can last a full year, with opportunities available in all corners of the globe and in multiple subject areas.

How to apply: Before applying to the cheetah internship, Mahi first had to complete steps to get involved in OSU GO, including a Canvas module to learn about the processes, costs and steps involved. She then interviewed with an internship coordinator, was selected to move forward, and worked with the coordinator to make her application to the CCF as strong as she could.

“I took the advice of my internship coordinator to edit my resume and cover letter,” she said.  “I thought it was good enough, but my coordinator wanted it to be very tailored and very specific – that was something I learned from her.”

Finally, she was selected for the CCF program and began preparing for the trip.

Overseas internship costs: International internships can involve extra costs, including airfare and other travel expenses. Mahi used OSU’s ScholarDollars portal to find aid to offset her costs. Mahi was able to collect enough scholarships to fund about 80 percent of her expenses, and her parents helped with the rest.

“Don’t hesitate to ask around in your department if they provide any funding for unpaid internships or abroad experiences,” Mahi said. “They will tell you exactly which scholarship to look for on the ScholarDollars portal or which other places you can look to for funding.”

Learn more about funding options for international experiences.

Advice for future interns:

“I would say do it: it’s a really good experience,” Mahi said. 

Since Mahi is herself an international student who traveled from India to the U.S. to attend Oregon State, she already believed in the power of experiencing new cultures and understanding new perspectives – her internship in Namibia only strengthened her love for travel.

“Traveling is a really good way for you to explore your strengths,” she said. “It made me realize I could handle myself alone. And it makes you see other people, people from a completely different culture and background than you, in a new way. It helps you get a better view of the world.”

The experience also deepened her love for nature and her desire for a career working with wildlife.

“It solidified things for me. I want to stay in conservation, and I want to work more with carnivore conservation and human-wildlife conflict,” she said. “When I went to Namibia, I was not only able to work with one of my favorite species, but also learn about their conservation efforts and see how they are dealing with human-wildlife conflict mitigation. I got that reassurance – yes, this is what I want to continue working with.”

How you can get started:

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International Students Success Stories

Persistence pays off: an international student’s journey to a job.

Minah Kim, ’22, BA in Psychology

Finding a job after graduation is a looming concern for most students in their final year of college. But for Minah Kim (’22), an international student, there was an added layer of pressure.

“Because I am an international student, the process of getting a job and being secure to live in the US is so complicated compared to domestic students,” Minah said. “If I didn’t have a job by the time I graduated, I might have to fly back home.” 

Minah, who is originally from South Korea, had lived in Oregon since the age of 14, first attending an international high school in southern Oregon, then Umpqua Community College, where she discovered a passion for psychology. She then transferred to Oregon State, drawn by the opportunities within the School of Psychological Science to gain a degree that would allow her to further her dream career – impacting the lives of children in need. By her final year at OSU, she had spent nearly half her life in the U.S.

“I built a close community here,” Minah said. “I am more comfortable here, more accepted here. I wanted to continue living in the U.S., wherever I ended up. My life is here.” 

With her goals in mind: finding a career helping children, and doing so within the U.S., Minah turned to Karla Rockhold, her College of Liberal Arts career advisor, for support.

“Karla gave me a bunch of websites and tools to look into that are specifically for international students,” Minah said.

“She also helped me with reformatting my resume and explaining how it should look, which really helped. And she helped me through practice interview questions. She sat down with me and helped me figure out word by word what I would say.”

Armed with new tools and resources, Minah felt much more confident tackling her job search, even with a looming deadline. 

“Working with Karla to prepare for my job search brought me comfort, because I’m not an expert,” Minah said. “This was my first time applying for an adult job!”

– Minah Kim, ’22, Psychology

Eager to have a job lined up before graduation, Minah began applying for jobs months before her graduation date – which didn’t always line up with the needs of the companies she was applying with.

“The hardest part of finding a job was the timing. I like to have things planned, I like to know what’s coming up, and I wanted to have the security so I could be at peace,” Minah said. “But if a company is interviewing you now, they want people now.”

Although she participated in multiple interviews over the course of her senior year, as graduation approached, she still didn’t have a job lined up. She did her best not to get discouraged, instead using each interview as a learning experience.

“Doing so many interviews, it provided me the time and opportunity to be more confident in the setting,” Minah said. “Your sentences become more fluent. They ask you similar questions. You learn to be more comfortable with yourself as well.”

Despite working to maintain a positive attitude, by the end of her last term, Minah was getting worried.

“I just kept thinking about how if I don’t have a job, I don’t know where I am going to be living,” she said. “It was a constant battle of waiting, working on my resume, and practicing interview questions. I’m doing all this, but at the end of the day I still don’t have a job. It was really hard to battle with that thought.”

The day of her last final exam at OSU, Minah was busy, frustrated, and stressed – she was studying, she was waiting to hear back about apartment possibilities, and she was preparing to welcome her parents, who were flying in the next day from South Korea for her graduation. And she was doing her best not to worry about the unknowns in her future. 

Turns out, her worries were about to be over. That very day, she got the news she’d been waiting for.

“That was one of the most amazing days. That last day I got my apartment, I got my job, and finished my last final!” she said. “It was pretty overwhelming, but it actually did work out. On the last day, it worked out.”

Minah Kim met with her OSU career advisor, Karla Rockhold, to help prepare for her job search.

Minah is now working as an early childhood educator with Family Building Blocks, an Oregon non-profit dedicated to providing preventative services at no cost to families facing overwhelming life circumstances. Minah works directly with young children and also builds relationships with parents, providing them with help and support. It’s exactly what she wanted: a career that allows her to help children and to stay near the life she’s built in Oregon.

Minah’s advice to other Oregon State students feeling pressure to find a job? Don’t give up, and take advantage of the career support at OSU.

“Use the resources you have as a student,” Minah said. “We pay for it! We might as well use it! Use the people here who can help you clean up your resume, don’t pay some random website to do it. OSU faculty are the best. I never met anyone who just does the job because it’s their job. They actually want to follow up with you and make sure you succeed.”


Job Resources for International Students

Working in the United States: information for international students from Oregon State’s Office of International Services

Tips for International Students for a U.S. Job or Internship Search: a guide from the Oregon State Career Development Center

Application Tips for International Students: a guide from the Oregon State Career Development Center

Resources for Interview Practice

Guide to Interviews: A complete overview of tips and best practices from the Oregon State Career Development Center

StandOut: OSU students can log in to practice interviewing on an interactive video interview tool

Sample Interview Questions: a list of common interview questions to review and practice answers for

Video Guide | Interview Like a Pro: this video from the Oregon State Career Development Center covers best practices for job interview success