Throughout my college career one of the best feelings I have had is realizing information I learned in one course could be applied to another, whether the classes were from the same field or not. These connections have made me feel excited about my studies and typically help me to better understand the material in both courses. During the fall 2014 semester I worked as an intern at Quota International, Inc. a small non-profit service organization headquartered in Washington D.C. that supports the deaf, hard-of-hearing, speech-impaired, and disadvantaged women and children. At times I did not see much of a connection between this work as an intern and the liberal arts courses I have taken. However, when looking more deeply I noticed connections between what I had learned in the classroom and the tasks I completed at work.
One of my first and ongoing assignments was to research and write articles for the organization’s magazine, The Quotarian, about influential legislation in the United States and in the 13 other countries that Quota International is located. To conduct this research I used knowledge from PLSC 001: Introduction to American National Government and PLSC 003: Introduction to Comparative Politics. In order to find and understand legislation from the United States I used my knowledge of the U.S. legislative system. I was able to successfully navigate the database of bills and acts that have been introduced to Congress about the rights of women and the hearing and speech-impaired. In addition, I used my understanding of parliamentary and constitutional democracies to find information about similar legislation that has been introduced in Canada, Australia, and the Philippines. This prior knowledge helped me expedite my assignments at work and enabled me to write successful articles.
I was also able to use skills from PLSC300H: Introduction to Independent Thesis Research to research and create an approved Wikipedia article for the organization. At Penn State I learned many techniques for researching and writing scholarly papers which helped me gather background and historical information for the Wikipedia project. The many hours I spent researching background information, performing literature reviews, and additional readings allowed me to successfully find very specific citations and news sources about Quota International’s history. I was able to apply my skills and learn new ones to create and launch the organization’s Wikipedia page.
Overall, I found many connections between my work as an intern and the previous experiences and knowledge I gained from the College of Liberal Arts. Now that I know my studies have been easily applicable to an internship that I first deemed unrelated, I am more confident that the skills, knowledge, and experiences I have gained at Penn State will be useful in a variety of fields after graduation.