Clockwise, from top left: Abby Terlouw works alongside Drs. Dennis Brown and Richard Bouley during her stint at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where she participated in the Harvard Summer Research Program in Kidney Medicine; Alexis Meldrum examines diagrams of architect Buckminster Fuller’s Fly’s Eye Dome with Crystal Bridges curatorial assistant Dylan Turk; Iliana Hernandez poses in full safety gear at the L’Oréal plant in Little Rock; Scott Sims strolls down an aisle packed with goods at the Sam’s Club in Rogers; David Sweere discusses blueprints with Jessica Lewallen and principal Craig Curzon at architectural firm Polk Stanley Wilcox; Mary Hill leads an interactive lesson on polygons with fifth-grade students at Bayyari Elementary School in Springdale; Kylee Sigmon looks up from her forecasting research at the Tyson Foods office.
Your grade point average isn’t the only resume line big companies are examining closely. As employers in all fields have started demanding more and more experience for entry-level positions, internships have become an increasingly important way to round out your education. University of Arkansas honors students have had some unique opportunities in recent years, with major businesses and cultural amenities right in their backyard.
These aren’t coffee-grabbing internships. Whether helping to unlock the secrets of a chronic disease, teaching a boss a thing or two about beef production, or cutting costs at a global cosmetics company, these students are doing real work with real-world impact.
To find out what internships add to the college experience, we talked to seven honors students who have taken full advantage of some exciting opportunities. What does it take to be an all-star intern? It turns out self-motivation, creative thinking and a little can-do attitude go a long way.
Scott Sims
SAM’S CLUB
Abby Terlouw
Harvard Summer Research Program in Kidney Medicine
Iliana Herndandez
L’Oreal
David Sweere
Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects
Alexis Meldrum
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Kylee Sigmon
Tyson Foods
Mary Hill
Bayyari Elementary
“She’s had the opportunity to do things not many people at her age have had a chance to do.”
“I feel like my calling is here, in these kinds of demographics.”
In this article we focused on internships we could check out up close, but honors students are picking up high-profile positions with companies across the U.S. and around the globe. Here’s a sampling:
1. Juan Andres Martinez Castro, civil engineering, Administration of the Panama Canal, Panama City, Panama
2. Erin Cox, landscape architecture, Urban Wilderness (landscape design / environmental consultancy), Leeds, England.
3. Jessica Loechler, economics and marketing, Major League Baseball and National Football League, New York City, NY
4. Jace McPherson, computer engineering, Google, Mountain View, CA
5. Brandon Moritz, biomedical engineering, Mission of Hope (healthcare/education), Haiti
6. Hannah Ray, criminal justice, political science and sociology, Office of Vice President, White House, Washington, D.C.
7. Clio Rom, art history, Borghese Gallery, Rome, Italy
8. Nezley Silva, social work and Latino and Latin American Studies, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Washington, D.C.
9. Steven Sonntag, mechanical engineering, BMW, Munich, Germany
10. Sean Street, chemical engineering, Wishfin (consumer finance), New Delhi, India
11. Rachel Ungar, biology, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany
12. Lauren Williams, mathematics, Lewis & Ellis (actuarial consulting firm), Dallas, Texas