Finding An Internship With Help From My Professor

In high school, one of the things I valued most was my relationships with my teachers. Going to college, I was nervous to just be another face in a lecture hall rather than an appreciated student. Luckily, at Bradley, I have still had amazing professor-student relationships that have given me new opportunities and have allowed me to be mentored by experts in my field. 

This past summer I received an email from the head of the Marketing department saying that I was the only Marketing student who also had a minor in Data Science. He wanted to talk to me about my experience in both programs and see how I felt about the combination. We met over Zoom and were able to geek out about computer science for over half an hour. At the end of the conversation, he told me he has seen a lot of potential in me through our very short conversation and referred me to an internship opportunity with Caterpillar. I had never spoken with this professor before that day, but he took the time to really get to know me and learn about my experience. This fall when the internship application opened up, he followed up with me, encouraged me to apply, and even wrote me a letter of recommendation. A couple of weeks later I was offered the position. 

This internship has allowed me to apply things I have learned in my classes to actual data. I have used pivot tables and analysis tools within excel that I learned about in MIS 173. I have applied data models to datasets which I learned in CS 360. I have analyzed data through a profitability lens that I gained in ATG 158. Actually being able to see the applications and reasoning behind what I have learned at Bradley has been incredibly cool and in a way, motivating. 

While this opportunity has been amazing and unique, it is not uncommon for Bradley professors to show an interest in the growth of their students. Since I have begun this internship, I have had past professors reach out and congratulate me on the position. They see this opportunity as a success for myself and the Bradley community, which deserves to be celebrated. This is exactly what I was looking for when I went to college and I am SO grateful that I have found it at Bradley!