Lara Alston

Describe the steps you took to obtain your internship.

During the summer, I became aware of InternFSU opportunities through an email from the Psychology Career Liaison, who then directed me to NoleNetwork. Through NoleNetwork, I was able to apply to multiple intern opportunities. After submitting a cover letter, resume, and references, I landed an interview with my future supervisor. Soon after this interview, I received an email from my supervisor offering me the position, which I excitedly accepted!

How far in advance did you prepare and begin applying for your experiential learning opportunity?

The application process for this internship taught me that I definitely should have looked into opportunities sooner. I only applied a couple of weeks before the application window closed when I could have applied much earlier and saved some stress.

If you used any Career Center services, resources, or events to obtain your internship, what were they? How did they support your application process?

I used NoleNetwork to find and apply for my internship. During the previous year, I contacted the Career Center to help me improve my resume, which certainly helped me with this process later on.

Describe some of your responsibilities or duties during your experiential learning opportunity.

My internship responsibilities involve grasping an understanding of a specific education curriculum and using that curriculum to code videos of teachers instructing students on vocabulary terms. I also assist with organizing data sets, making data packets, and entering data into Excel.

What was a typical day like "on the job?"

A typical day for me involves watching 2-3 videos of teachers instructing elementary students on vocabulary during various read-alouds. I then transcribe the vocabulary words taught in these videos, including how long the instruction lasted, what part of speech the word was, and if the word was based in text or not. We call this VTE coding, and it is the main team that I am involved with in the grander scheme of the lab I intern in.

What are some major takeaways from your experience? How will these help prepare you for the next step after graduation?

The best takeaway from this experience is that I have been granted the opportunity to continue working at this location as a part-time research assistant! I have met multiple mentors through this experience that I will continue to be able to work with through the coming semesters, and those mentors are helping to guide me on what path I want to take through graduate school. There are so many people in this field from various backgrounds that work in this lab and I love getting to learn from their experiences.

Did this experience help clarify your career path? If yes, how so?

This experience certainly helped me clarify my career path. I now know for certain that this is the field I want to pursue in graduate school and beyond, and I do not think I would be as clear in that decision had I not taken this intern opportunity. This experience only increased my interest and passion in educational research, and I cannot wait to continue this working experience next semester!