HGSE opens so many doors, including the opportunity to intern at a variety of organizations. In this blog post, students share their internship experience and how it has shaped their time at HGSE.
Emily Dawson
Tell us about your internship.
I am interning as a curriculum developer at a virtual reality tutoring startup, LearnSesh. My primary role is to research national curriculum standards and the pain points educators encounter when implementing them. I then create content proposals for the Content Design team who creates the proposed resources in a virtual space.
How did you find out about this opportunity?
I had recently taken a class on learning and identity development in virtual worlds and was interested in learning about developing content and curriculum for educators who want to use virtual reality which was an area I did not expect to be interested in. I found out about this opportunity through searches for internships in curriculum development in ed tech companies and applied to gain experience and dive more into virtual reality and how it can be utilized in classrooms.
How has your internship added to your HGSE experience and tie into your career aspirations?
While many of my classes have provided project-based learning experiences or have connected me with companies doing what we are learning about, my internship has provided me a way to apply what I have learned, create new content, and grow alongside a new company.
Prior to HGSE, my experience was in formal educational settings and I have unexpectedly become more interested in working in the ed tech space and my internship is providing a way for me to learn how curriculum development works outside of the classroom. It is also providing insights into the development of virtual reality resources in general. As I am preparing to graduate and make a career transition away from classroom teaching, I am gaining experience in the ed tech world and learning how my prior experience can be leveraged in other contexts.
Zohal Shah
Tell us about your internship.
I am currently a Graduate Research Assistant in the Science Education Department at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. I have had the opportunity investigate national survey data and pursue original research with the intention to submit a paper for publication.
How did you find out about this opportunity?
I am thankful to have found out about this opportunity through the internship expo at the beginning of the Fall semester.
How has your internship added to your HGSE experience and tie into your career aspirations?
This internship has been a tremendous opportunity to hone my research skills and prepare me to pursue research beyond HGSE!
Jazzlyne Gunawan
Tell us about your internship.
I’ve been doing my internship in the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture from Fall semester and continuing to this spring, assisting in their monitoring and evaluation efforts for a new flagship program that is about to roll out. It’s been an amazing experience, learning about the different teams at work and how things get done. I was tasked with a variety of tasks that helped me really use the skills I’ve gained in various classes, and really see how they connect (or can connect) in real-life settings. I also help with supporting their research work, while being lucky enough to be invited to share some of my thoughts in the wider M&E design process.
How did you find out about this opportunity?
I found out about it through another internship prior to joining HGSE, connected by former colleagues, and set up through discussions of how the work can be mutually beneficial to the Ministry but also to my learning through HGSE.
How has your internship added to your HGSE experience and tie into your career aspirations?
This internship has very much added to the richness of my HGSE experience. Not only had it enriched the content of what I’ve been learning in classes, helped me apply it in a very immediate and real way, but also see how difficult, indirect, and non-linear some of its application is, as opposed to studying its theory! I’ve been so lucky to be able to have the support of my professors and be able to seek out advice from them, which has definitely helped me be more strategic about the work I’m doing in the Ministry as well.
I hope to be able to continue my work to impact systems-level structures, be it in the public sector or otherwise. With the level of collaboration that is required by different stakeholders in and across the sector, it’s given me a rich understanding of the challenges, but also possibilities of how systems can succeed in providing quality education for all children, especially those hardest to reach. I hope to continue building these networks and expanding these communities of practice as I aspire to continue doing this work to create the deepest and widest impact I can.
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