Category: How To

Why You Should Consider an Internship This Summer

Dear English and Writing and Applied Arts majors,

Summer is approaching fast and so is the promise of longer days, a break from academics, and for many, a chance to cash in more hours at work. With all of this in mind, this is a reminder to not rule internships out this season. Though it can take some extra negotiation – Will I work an unpaid or paid internship? Will I work my summer job and add on extra work? – in my experience, internships have been a worthwhile bridge between the academic and professional world. Here’s why:

1. It allows you to get a taste for the field.

Wherever you are interning, whether for a publication or an advertising agency, in government or in education, your investment in the company or organization has an end date. What I mean by this is that your role as an intern allows you to get a feel for the type of work you are curious about without fully committing. It’s like trying on a pair of boots. Last summer, I interned with a nonprofit in tech development. I found out I loved the nonprofit feel, but I absolutely did not love the tech world. When my internship ended, I happily closed that chapter. No harm done. Now, I have a better understanding of what I enjoy and what I don’t.

2. You’ll gain opportunities for networking.

In most cases, you’ll be part of a team. Whether small or big, these are the people you will be working with and who often have quite a bit of experience. They can be great sources for questions you might have and not only about work. I’ve had opportunities in internships to ask my manager or coworkers about their career trajectory. It can feel a little intimidating to ask, but I’ve found that usually people are generous and willing to share advice. If your internship goes well, these are people you may want to tap into as a resource in the future. They might know about other positions or recommend you to people they have connections with. Either way, your professional work circle just expanded.

3. You’ll have a chance to build up your portfolio.

For many of us, having “clips” or “work samples” is important. As writers, creators, editors, and so on, showing the work we are capable of will play an important role in future employment. Depending on the nature of the internship, if creation is a central component, you should walk away with solid professional content. A portfolio of your published writing, social media copy, web copy, graphics, design, or video and audio production is always a helpful asset when you’re breaking into a creative field.

4. You’ll take skills from the classroom to the workforce and vice versa.

This is one of the best ways to exercise all those transferable skills you are learning in your degree. Internships are a great way to flex your pen (or keyboard) and put into use all the critical thinking, reading, and synthesizing our courses demand of us. In previous internships, I’ve faced new project management tools and software. It was a learning opportunity, and I left feeling confident I could add this skill to my resume. Work settings are great breeding sites for hard and soft skills. An added bonus, and something I did not expect, was how these practices fed back into my classes. I felt more confident and capable. It turns out that when you stretch new muscles, the entire body benefits.

5. It might lead to a job after graduation.

I’ve known friends who have received direct job offers post-internship. This isn’t a guarantee, but leaving a professional work setting with a good impression is never a bad thing. If a full-time position you’d like to apply for is available in the future, sometimes a former manager or hiring director might remember you. In any case, you’ll at the very least gain a reference from a positive internship experience, and this is nothing short of valuable.

UWGB is a good place to start.

Let’s say this is not the year for an off-campus internship for one reason or another. That’s totally okay, because UWGB offers some great internship opportunities and hands-on experience. Check out: Sheepshead Review and English 224: Practicum in Literary Publishing/Northern Lights for editorial experience and possible credit, UWGB Creatives for digital media experience and credit, and the Teaching Press for publishing practice and credit.

Sites that can help you find internships:

  • If you’re a BFA in Writing and Applied Arts major, Professor Rebecca Meacham, the chair and faculty advisor of the program, can help you figure out your internship options within UWGB—as well as a few placements in the community.
  • Check out Handshake, which is full of internship and summer employment opportunities from local employers seeking UWGB students.
  • Indeed.com has local help-wanted ads, including for summer internships.
  • Idealist.org has internship ads from nonprofit organizations across the country.
  • If you don’t mind creating a profile, Linkedin.com is another good site for hunting down internships and post-graduation positions.
  • Talk with your professors, too. They may know of some places that offer great internships.

“How To” Session: Casey Thayer, UWGB Creative Writing alumnus ’06

On May 7th at 4pm, Casey Thayer (B.A. in English: Creative Writing from UWGB ‘06 and an MFA in Poetry from Northern Michigan University) will be presenting for the third and final “How To” session, organized by the English department Creatives intern team, the series offers students a forum to discuss publishing internships, networking, graduate school, and job search strategies.

Attend this session and learn how to publish your work, discover journal and book contests, and get tips for editing/submitting your poetry. Thayer will be offering advice on how to avoid publishing pitfalls; how to narrow the field when submitting your work; and how to prevent your submissions from landing on the slush pile.

Thayer is the author of Self Portrait with Spurs and Sulfur (University of New Mexico Press, 2015) and Love for the Gun (2021), winner of the Cow Creek Chapbook Contest, and he has published poetry in AGNI, American Poetry Review, Poetry, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. He was awarded a Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University and a Tennessee Williams Scholarship from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. He has also taught English at UW-Rock County, Stanford University, and the City Colleges of Chicago.

To participate, please RSVP here: “How To” with Casey Thayer

UWGB Creatives will Launch “How To” Series

On Friday, March 26th from 4-5pm, UWGB Creatives will launch the first of a Three-Part “How to” series. (“How to” Series Survey/Zoom Link) This series will give UW-Green Bay B.F.A. students a forum to discuss internships, networking, and job search strategies.

Krynn Hanold, a UWGB B.F.A. ’19 alumna, will be the first to share her experiences breaking into the exciting world of publishing. Krynn has landed a job with Bloomsbury, USA—the originating publisher and custodian of the Harry Potter series.  They have offices in London, New York, New Delhi, Oxford, and Sidney.  Bloomsbury authors have won the Nobel, Pulitzer and Booker Prizes.

Don’t miss the opportunity to hear how three successful UWGB B.F.A. and English graduates started their job search, navigated that vast ocean of writing career opportunities, and landed their dream jobs. Join us and you could be our featured success graduate in 2022!

The Joy of Paper Making

Have you ever been like, “Hmm, I have so much extra paper but can’t use it!?” If you answered this question with, “Yup, that’s me. I have that problem,” I hate to break it to you, but you’re wrong. You can do so many things with that extra paper, such as: make a paper fort, burn it while hosting a bonfire, take up origami, or wrap yourself up like a little homeless lady. Too bad I’m not going to tell you how to do any of those things, especially origami; origami and I don’t mesh well. Instead, I will tell you about the joy of how to make paper from, you guessed it, paper.

Things you’ll need: 

  • A sponge
  • Water (copious amount; you may want to pay your water bill)
  • A car or a really great friend with a car
  • About $26.79 (and $89.62 for that water bill)
  • Paper, I guess… wait, you already have a bunch
  • The will to actually make paper

The steps go as such:

  1. Chop up all that paper into bite size pieces (be careful not to choke on the teeny tiny pieces).
  2. Soak the bits in water.
  3.  Go to The Goodwill, buy a blender, make sure it works, clean it out real nice and such, and never use it for food.
  4. Fill your new blender about ¾ full with water.
  5. Add the soaked paper bits to blender water so it’s about ⅓ the amount of water in the blender.
  6. Blend to a pulp (this will probably take a awhile since you really cheaped out on the blender).
  7. Clean up the giant mess you made if you forgot to put the lid on before blending in step 6 (this actually happens often).
  8. Empty out one of your old Christmas totes (I know you have at least one; we all have about seven) and fill it generously with water.
  9. Dump your pulp into the bin of water. One blender full is not going to be enough pulp to make paper though.
  10. Repeat steps 4-6 as well as step 9 (and 7 if you really just don’t have it together today).
  11. Once it looks like there’s a good amount of pulp in your vat (it should kinda look like murky swamp water) you can finally start pulling sheets of paper.
  12. Go back to The Goodwill and buy 2 identically sized frames, some old window screens, that dress that caught your eye when you were there earlier (just go for it, you look great in yellow), and an old bed sheet of the fitted variety—you’ll need it later and we cannot be going back to The Goodwill a third time today.
  13. Pop in a frozen pizza; this is a ton of work and you’re getting pretty hangry by now.
  14. Make your screen and deckel (I’m sure there’s a tutorial for this on The YouTube).
  15. Tightly cover a flat surface with the old bed sheet.
  16. Dampen the sheet.
  17. Hold your screen and deckel together and finally pull a sheet of paper from the vat.
  18. Remove the deckel and flip the sheet of paper unto the damp bed sheet.
  19. Use a sponge to remove excess water from the paper.
  20. Remove the screen.
  21. Take your pizza out of the oven; it’s probably burnt to a crisp by now.
  22. Repeat steps 16-20 until you reach your desired amount of paper.
  23. Let your paper dry.
  24. Clean up.
  25. Peel the paper off the bed sheet once dry.
  26. Realize that this didn’t solve your problem of having an excessive amount of paper.
  27. Binge watch New Girl.

And so there you have it; 27 easy steps to making paper.

P. S. If you have extra pulp left over you can save it for the next time you feel crafty and want to make paper again.