After Carleton, I plan on working as a math tutor through an Americorps program in Charleston, South Carolina. In addition to showing me how interesting a career in librarianship is, the R&I internship has given me many tools that will help me succeed in this next position. Not only did I get the idea to participate in an Americorps program through this internship, but also through a career exploration project, shifts working at the reference desk (both in-person and virtually), and projects with special collections, I learned that I enjoy activities that have some teaching component, which is why I decided that pursuing an Americorps program in education would be a good fit for me. Additionally, the internship has allowed me to work on important skills like meeting deadlines for assignments and projects, balancing work and school, and maintaining good communication, which will all be helpful in the future.
As a final note, prior to doing this internship, I assumed that by the end of my four years at Carleton, I would have to have chosen some career path that I would pursue– that is, the idea that I could try things out after graduation was non-existent to me. However, the internship helped me to keep an open mind as I thought about future careers. Through the career project that I mentioned above, I began imagining what it would be like to have a particular job by thinking about the job description itself and beyond. This was invaluable to me because it forced me to consider the many factors that contribute to an overall job experience, and it helped me clarify for myself what it was that I wanted my next job to look like. Furthermore, learning about the paths of other librarians to the library profession last year was interesting because it showed me that I could test various jobs that interest me before selecting one I want to pursue for a longer term, which was comforting to me because I tend to have a lot of interests.
Owen Schuster
