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Remarkable Alumnae Honored at Celebration of the Liberal Arts Founding Director Will Shape College's Engineering Program Gift Supports Novel Faculty Projects
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Praxis Prodigies By Ann E. Shanahan '59 Grace Wong '00 spent last summer meeting curators, art dealers and artists at gallery openings in New York; Jennifer Kobrin '01 gathered information about the history, folklore and culture of the New Jersey Turnpike; Emily Barrett '01 taught basic reading skills in a rural community in the Dominican Republic; Laura Unger '00 assisted with the debriefing of Chinese scholars returning to Shanghai from trips to the United States sponsored by the U.S. Information Service; Sarah Ernst-Edwards '00 wrote interview scripts at National Public Radio for "Billy Taylor's Jazz at the Kennedy Center." What did these women have in common? Their Praxis internships. Praxis, launched one year ago, is a program that guarantees every Smith student the opportunity to elect a college-funded internship, an important new option for students who cannot afford to take what is essentially a summer job without pay. Internship opportunities in some of the professional areas that are most appealing to students-social welfare and human services, the arts, health care, education, communications and the media, for example-are certainly available, but very often no salary comes with them. The $2,000 Praxis stipend helps students meet their room, board and other expenses during an unpaid internship. In the program's first summer, 433 Smith students pursued Praxis internships in fields ranging from human services to basic and applied sciences, from health care to law. Although most of the internships were in the United States, 10 percent of the students who participated worked in 29 foreign countries, from Bangladesh to Guatemala and from Malta to Zimbabwe. Many of the internships were with Smith alumnae, which made them even more effective in terms of the quality of mentoring students received. Barbara Reinhold, director of the Career Development Office, which manages Praxis, says the CDO enthusiastically accepts offers of paid or unpaid internships for students. Upon their return the students wrote assessments of their experiences and graded them from "terrific" (about 40 percent) to poor (.03 percent). Their supervisors, in turn, evaluated the interns: "I am very pleased to give what is probably the highest recommendation I have ever given any intern or employee..." "I would go so far as to say they are the best group of interns we have ever had here..." "I believe that she will be a special physician who will contribute significantly to patient care and to the advancement of our profession. If people at Smith are like her, we will look forward to any of your students who would like to join us in future summers." Most students described their supervisors and overall experience in equally glowing terms: "It was extremely beneficial and rewarding to work with Professor Jordan; he spent many hours explaining the nature and purpose of his research [on fish habitat in the Mississippi River Delta]." "[My supervisor] was more than a supervisor, she was a mentor and an educator and genuinely cared about my learning experience [at the Detroit Historical Museum]." "It was a very rewarding experience, especially because I could see how much I contributed to the workings of the [Planned Parenthood] affiliate. On my last day, Cheryl, the CEO, came in and thanked me for all the work I had done, and told me that I had initiated really important things that would have been neglected otherwise." Of course, not everything was perfect. A few students complained of unconcerned, unresponsive supervisors or of too much "grunt work"-data entry, photocopying, answering phones-or of not learning enough about the career field. But most would probably agree with Kristen Bowler '00, whose internship was at the Worcester (Massachusetts) Art Museum: "An internship is about so much more than the special projects that one is assigned. It is about learning to function outside the cushioned arena of academia-through trying to effectively interact with co-workers, make deadlines, present yourself as a professional and complete your projects to the satisfaction of people other than yourself." It appears that the college's hopes for the Praxis program have not been misplaced. The commitment of more than $800,000 to fund Praxis stipends in the first year enabled several hundred Smith students to tie theoretical learning to practical experience, to inform themselves in important ways about possible career or graduate school choices and to get a taste of the working world. The CDO staff is eager to start working with the new wave of students who will be seeking Praxis internships for the summer of 2000. |
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