Shift #59 - Alumni Panel & Goodbye Celebration
Friday, August 2, 2024 | 12-1:30 pm CST/1-2:30 pm EST (1.5 hrs)
I cannot believe that this summer flew by. We are now at the goodbye celebration with Library of Congress staff and alumni panel of the Law Library remote internship! At the beginning of the summer, I really wasn't quite sure how a remote internship would work but it did, thanks in large part to my supervisor Jennifer. She is extremely organized and was open and communicative, ensuring that we had the help and support that we needed. For the goodbye celebration part, we got to introduce ourselves and speak for a minute each about our current blog post project. That was a little nerve-wracking but overall, not bad. After about half an hour, the staffers left and two Law Library internship alumni joined the meeting. We heard from Sarah McKenna and Madeleine Grace. Sarah did the remote metadata internship during the pandemic in 2020 and is now an employee of the Library of Congress as a data analyst. Madeleine did the creative digital projects internship (the one I'm doing now) and wrote her blog post about the Gutenberg Bible and jaywalking (I need to find this, it sounds so interesting!). She now works at Columbia University as a librarian.
Jennifer had specific questions to the alumni but she also gave us a chance to ask a few questions. A question we began with was how did Sarah and Madeleine transition from interns to their jobs? Sarah said that it was not too hard to go from the internship and being a part-time student to full-time work. However, the adjustment to being in-office was a little hard (since she did a remote internship). She said that she learned a lot of skills that have helped her in her job. Madeleine explained that she already had 10 years in the job field before graduate school. She also had to deal with pregnancy during school for her master's. Madeleine remembered that Jennifer had pointed out that school is so cyclical. You have something to look forward to because each semester ends but work isn't like that – so it was a tough transition for Madeleine. Another question asked specifically to Sarah wondered about how her experience was as a part-time law student while working. Sarah said that she was very fortunate to work with great people in her small team/office. However, she would have many long days and needed lots of time management between work and class. Jennifer chimed in that for her own journey to the Law Library, she worked first. Then when she started law school, she had the privilege and ability to just focus on that and did some part-time work here and there (she said that focusing on law school really helped her instead of having a full-time job). A question to Madeleine was about she prepared a job in medical/health librarianship. Madeleine answered that you don't need a master's or PhD in science; you can still find a path within the field. Her particular job is a little bit of everything. She didn't have a medical background but with her MLIS, she was able to still get her foot in the door. Both women had a lot of experience and knowledge and it was great to hear their input! One of the last couple of things I took away from the alumni panel was that we should be open to whatever comes our way. Even if we're only slightly interested in it, we should find a way to make it work. Lastly, we should remember to advocate for ourselves; we shouldn't be humble about our accomplishments, even if it's something small!
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