Tina is a second-year NICBC student who interned at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). She shares some insights for current students who are in the process of finding an internship:
In just a few sentences, please tell us about your summer internship. How does it connect to your personal and professional interests?
This past summer I assumed the role of the Susan Levin Nutrition Intern at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). PCRM is a nonprofit organization that advocates for plant-based diets being the optimal choice for preventing chronic disease as well as the elimination of animal usage in laboratory settings. This could not have been a more perfect internship for me, as my main career goal is to educate the general population on the benefits of plant-based/plant-forward diets and encourage and facilitate the adoption of this way of eating. Words cannot describe my gratitude for this internship experience because it has reassured me what my purpose in life truly ought to be.
How did you land your internship?
I always knew I wanted to work at an organization whose philosophy was primarily plant-based. I already knew of PCRM and have followed them for years, and therefore I went to the careers section of their website to see if there were any internship opportunities. I quickly applied to the internship in January and did not hear back until April/May time. Throughout those months in between I messaged tons of PCRM employees on Linkedin about their experiences at the company. I then expressed to them my deep interest in the internship and inquired whether they knew when I would likely hear back. After doing this, I heard back imminently for an interview, and I truly believe that this networking is the reason I landed the role.
What did you enjoy about your internship? What did you find challenging?
Because I was able to work with everyone in the nutrition department, it was a privilege to experience the different avenues I could possibly take in my career and, in turn, allowed me to garner invaluable knowledge and skills that will enhance my performance in the workforce. I loved that I was able to create nutrition education materials, answer nutrition questions directly to consumers, and use science-backed evidence to debunk nutrition myths. It was a dream come true to have been able to attend and work at their yearly International Conference of Nutrition in Medicine as a speaker coordinator because I was able to speak directly to and learn from the lead physicians and scientists in the field.
I definitely had to learn how to be more humble with my knowledge because I was thrown into a world of experts on plant-based nutrition, and I did not realize how much I didn’t know going into the internship! This was definitely a challenge but also a wonderful opportunity to sit back and learn from others with more experience in the field. When writing papers or articles on behalf of the company, it was challenging to avoid using my own voice in order to sound like the voice of the organization.
What are the necessary soft and hard skills needed for this position?
I was able to hone in my skills of being organized, sociable, efficient, inquisitive, and thorough. I also gained many invaluable skills such as being comfortable without exact instruction, communicating properly based on team needs, how to speak to professionals in a conference environment, and how to write succinctly.
If you could offer one piece of internship search advice to your peers, what would it be?
Network, network, network! Find a few internships that you are really interested in, and after you apply, message their employees through LinkedIn. This shows that you are interested enough to take the time to message them and learn from their experiences. Name recognition is immensely powerful in facilitating the recruiting process and you literally have nothing to lose!
