Elie Al Khoury

What organization did you work with?

Management Systems International in Arlington Virginia, USA

What did you do at your internship?

Successfully scheduled and managed multiple online events and meetings, ensuring seamless execution. Implemented regular updates and improvements to the website’s content and design, aligning it with industry best practices. Drove improvements in website functionality, flow, and design, resulting in a more user-friendly interface and increased member satisfaction.

How did Lewis & Clark’s Career Center support you in finding, securing, and/or funding your internship?

Nina Olken at the Career Center has been an amazing instructor and guide throughout the internship. I found the internship through Handshake which is run by the career center, they helped me apply and checked my resume and cover letter. On the other hand, the Lewis and Clark administration did not, it made it harder for me and created more obstacles without helping to solve anything. As an international student, I am not allowed to work at an internship without being registered in a practicum course, so I lost a lot of time where I could have been working at the internship because Lewis and Clark did not help find any solution. It is now also creating reasons not to allow me to keep working at the internship.

What is your biggest takeaway from your internship?

The most significant and widely applicable skills, pertaining to career mobility, that I’ve attained through this experience and believe are instrumental to effective involvement in similar positions are the awareness and understanding of project management tools. Gaining experience in project management as well as software that allowed for the seamless sharing and development of ideas for potential articles and projects was essential when it came to becoming comfortable with positions that entail greater responsibility and individual involvement. Getting more comfortable with this form of work additionally empowered me in performing better in academic work, as certain scheduling and work-related techniques were also facilitative in relation to my midterm and final projects. I became significantly more proficient in approximating budgets and project needs, as well as breaking a greater project idea into smaller components through dynamic outlining. The development of these skills, therefore, has been beneficial both in terms of my professional improvement as well as academic engagement.

How is this internship connected to your career goals and/or future aspirations?

This internship opened a new path of opportunities for me. Not only do I see myself working in the same sort of environment, but I have already been actively applying my newfound skills to future career prospects. This week, for instance, I was speaking to a professional who was complaining about not being able to find a decently qualified individual willing to work with WordPress. I then told her that I had just finished an internship where I was actively and consistently using WordPress in conjunction with other software, which represented a gateway towards ongoing discussions of a position with this employer in the foreseeable future.