Intern Insights: A Winter Internship with LEAP

Posted on February 17, 2021
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by FeliciaOctocog
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By Emma Cundari


[custom_frame_right][/custom_frame_right]On the bright morning of January 4th, I sat at the desk in the spare bedroom of my home in northern New Jersey. That morning, in that room, is where I kicked off the first day of my remote Career Services internship with LEAP for Education for my English & Creative Writing major. It started with the first of many video calls with my internship supervisor, Madison Seligman, LEAP’s Career & Outreach Coordinator. Over three weeks have passed since that moment and yet, it feels as if it was just yesterday. As cliche as it is, time really does fly when you’re having fun, and my time at LEAP was just that!

As cliche as it is, time really does fly when you’re having fun, and my time at LEAP was just that!

The whole LEAP team did a fantastic job at making me feel welcomed and appreciated, which is an amazing feat in a virtual situation! During my time, I was included in team meetings and two virtual events: The COVID-19 Conversation and the Virtual Networking Night. Not only this, but I wanted to achieve some of my professional development goals, and LEAP helped me do that!

LEAP helped me achieve my professional development goals
One of my goals involved having more confidence in my ability to communicate with and reach out to others in a professional setting. Given the long-distance nature of the internship, effective and constant communication was paramount. This caused me to step out of my comfort zone and learn to send professional emails without any self-doubt!

Another goal of mine consisted of acquiring experience in writing and editing in the professional world (as opposed to the academic one that I am most familiar with). During my internship, I was invited to work on multiple administrative and curriculum documents, which allowed me to fulfill this goal. These projects gave me the opportunity to work on writing EL friendly materials and compiling these in both an interesting and visually appealing way!

LEAP provides students with work-based learning experiences that will be useful in the next stages of their lives!
Such focus on helping all supporters (including interns) meet their personal and professional goals is the very reason why I was drawn to LEAP! Indeed, LEAP’s focus on setting goals and exploring interests reminded me of why I chose to attend Endicott College. Specifically, at LEAP, I observed how students are encouraged to learn, explore, aspire, and pursue personal, educational, and career goals. This connects to my belief that education should aid students in the pursuit of their future careers. The most common complaint I hear from fellow students is “When am I ever going to use this information?” At LEAP, students don’t have to ask this, because they know that the work-based learning experiences will be useful in the next stages of their lives!


Interested in interning with LEAP in the future? Reach out to LEAP’s Career and Outreach Coordinator, Madison Seligman at mseligman@leap4ed.org.