As seniors decide what interests to pursue in college, many turn to summer internships to find a career they might want to pursue in the future. According to senior Lily Dolan, her internship at Jiobit allowed her to explore a career that she has been fascinated by for a long time. Surrounded by and collaborating with incredibly talented and smart people all summer was a dream come true, Dolan said.

Dolan took up a business internship at a start-up company called Jiobit, which creates tracking devices for children and household pets. Dolan stated that she originally started by working operations, fulfilling orders, working on software development, and then started working on their social media outreach.

“I wanted to learn about working in a business because I am interested in entrepreneurship and starting my own business,” Dolan said. “It tends to be glamorized in the media and I just wanted to see it for my own eyes. [I learned that starting a business] is really difficult in that there is a [sense of] liability because your effort is usually synonymous with the business’s success. However, it is really rewarding to see the direct impact that your business or product has on people.”

Differing from Dolan’s business internship, senior Maddy McGrath interned for Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, Illinois state representative. McGrath states that she has always been passionate about working in fields that involve cooperating with other people and collaborating to solve complex issues. This internship taught her to appreciate all facets of government, McGrath said.

“This internship allowed me to get firsthand experience in dealing with people who have been affected by serious political issues, and [it has allowed me to] gain real knowledge of what can be done to solve it,” McGrath said. “I learned that every role in politics is important because everyone has something to do and everyone can impact their community in a different way.”

Similarly, senior Brendan Garvey, who had an internship with Apple in downtown Chicago, thought that this interning opportunity would be perfect for him to confirm what he already knew: that he wanted to go into the filmmaking industry in the future.

“[My internship] was right in line with what I wanted to do after college,” Garvey said. “Before I did [the internship], I knew I wanted to get into [making documentaries], but this confirmed why I wanted to do it. It really captured all my interests, the journalistic aspect along with my own touch.”

Dolan, McGrath, and Garvey have high hopes of one day working in an environment similar to what they did in their internships. According to Dolan, she can see herself starting her own successful company in a few years.  It was through her internship that Dolan learned the culture of the business world.

“[I learned to] work as much as you can and do as much as you can because hopefully there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and you come up with a successful business yourself,” Dolan said.