Building a Resume

January 14, 2011

This month, sophomore Savanna R. Bannister has been traveling between homes in central Indiana as something of a birthday planner. She isn’t arranging menus or guest lists. Rather, Bannister is shadowing midwives from Believe Midwifery in Thornton, Ind., helping local mothers bring their children into the world.

“We’re doing both prenatal and postpartum care,” says Bannister, a women’s studies and Spanish double major. “We check the houses to make sure they are ready for home birth. On a postpartum visit, we make sure the baby is breastfeeding well and the mother is healing.”

While many students are spending DePauw’s Winter Term on educational and service trips abroad, Bannister (pictured, left) and others are using the month to explore careers through hands-on internships.

“I wanted to be an OB/GYN when I first came to DePauw,” Bannister says. “After my first-year seminar, Technical Health Ethics, I decided that I liked the practices of midwifery better because of the intimacy you have with clients and the lack of constant medication.”

Winter Term has traditionally been a chance for DePauw students to explore – sometimes literally – a new culture or discipline, but for many, internships provide a targeted way to plan for life after graduation.

Which is better? Director of Professional Opportunities Steve Langerud, who helps students connect their academic interests with potential careers, says that either approach can be used to open new doors.

“Everything matters,” Langerud says. “What I look for in a student experience are things that transcend the place, organization or topic. The best experiences prepare students for their next, more complex or difficult experience.”

Through Winter Term, students also have opportunities to network with alumni, who understand that students are trading trips to places such as Ghana, China or Costa Rica in hopes of having a truly engaging internship.

Senior sport and exercise science major Brayden T. Dahlstrom is spending his Winter Term shadowing Javair Gillett, a 2001 DePauw graduate and head strength and conditioning coach for the Detroit Tigers, at the team’s spring training site in Florida.

“We have a lot of Tigers players and minor league players here in Lakeland rehabilitating from injury and conditioning for spring training,” Dahlstrom says. “I’m usually in the weight room training the players and learning from Javair and the other strength coaches. I would love to be a strength coach for a university or a professional team, so this is a great opportunity for me to learn in a professional setting.”

Another senior, creative writing major Warren F. Cangany, took advantage of DePauw connections to find an internship. A DePauw alum helped him arrange an interview at Thunder Road Pictures in Santa Monica, Calif., the production company behind 2010’s Clash of the Titans and Ben Affleck’s The Town. Cangany is now reading through what may be the next blockbuster to come from the studio.

“Scripts are a dime a dozen out in Hollywood, so executives at Thunder Road can’t read them all,” Cangany explains. “It’s my job to read the incoming scripts, while considering the premise, story, structure, character and dialogue.”

“I was signed up to take screenwriting in the semester before Winter Term,” Cangany says. “The class gave me a great foundation for my internship at Thunder Road. It’s such an eye-opening experience to see what happens to a script once it’s written and sent off for consideration.”

While Winter Term internships are usually closely connected with a student’s academic interests, they aren’t always indicative of where a student will head after graduation.

Sophomore sociology major Sharon L. Hayes (right) is spending Winter Term with the Chicago Police Department’s crime scene investigation unit.

“It connects wonderfully with my major because I get to study a plethora of different people every day at work,” Hayes says. “I may want to go into the crime scene investigation field. Right now, I’m just exploring. I change my mind all the time because I have so many things that I'd like to try, but I know that being a police intern is great experience that can prepare me for other jobs.”

Langerud agrees that Winter Term internships can be strategically used to explore different areas of interest. Even if a student chooses to go in a different direction, the experience will help point him or her in the right direction.

“It is one of the lowest-risk ways to explore a new career area,” he says. “In the end, a series of good internships is the best cure for a mid-life crisis.”

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