USA: Lillian Chmielewska (Virtual)
Program: UW Wisconsin in Washington, DC Internship Program, Summer
Lillian’s Major: Psychology, Public Policy Certificate, Criminal Justice Certificate, Entrepreneurship Certificate
How were your program academics similar or different from taking classes at UW-Madison?
The program academics differed in the sense that the WiW course was focused a lot on personal professional development and my typical UW-Madison classes deal with content on a specific subject. The kinds of assignments that were assigned to us in the WiW course often required us to take initiative and do things outside of class like interview a professional in a career field of interest and then analyze and apply their answers to your own career development. This is different than a typical UW-Madison course that would be more likely to have me research a specific topic and then write a report on it. The main difference lies in how WiW really has you relate the content back to yourself.
This internship experience was my first professional job in a city other than my hometown of Madison, WI. This was incredibly valuable and as I mentioned previously, it really increased my confidence in myself and has motivated me to really push myself this next year and beyond. To me, gaining this confidence in myself really is life-changing as I was lacking it before and this held me back in a lot of ways. I now feel a lot more capable and ready to take on the professional world which I can not say I felt before this summer.
How did your identities impact your experience? What advice would you give to students with similar identities who are considering a similar experience?
I feel that being a woman was the identity of mine that ended up being the most impactful on my experience. When I first started this program and my internship, I was dealing with a case of imposter syndrome. I was feeling as if I did not deserve to be there as much as everyone else and I lacked confidence, which sadly, is a feeling many women get in professional settings. Through the supportive environment in the WiW program and my internship, this feeling slowly faded. My advice to anyone else who struggles with imposter syndrome is to seek out supportive environments (like WiW!) because it is there where you will find a network of people that uplift you!
What is your most memorable experience from your program?
My most memorable experience from the program was actually listening to our first guest speaker, Steve Meyers, talk to us about consulting. I did not know much about the field of consulting and to be honest, I never knew it was an option for myself. I immediately was intrigued and left that class feeling so inspired. I was able to interview him for an assignment we had in class and learn even more about the field. Since then, I have been able to network with more people in the consulting field and am planning on applying to consulting jobs post-graduation.