Getting over your fears– applying to internships

Calling all confident queens to this post! Hi! Are you currently enrolled in college and desperate
to find internships but are hesitant to apply… because same. Let me introduce myself. My name
is Sonia, I am currently a rising junior at the University of Michigan and I recently transferred
from Kenyon College. Over the past year I have been extremely busy!! Let me explain in more
detail…
During my sophomore year at Kenyon College, I was struggling with whether or not I should
transfer to another school. I would think about this day and night while attending my classes,
exercising in the gym, eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner with my friends. This was a never-ending thought and after A LOT and I mean A LOT of back and forth, I decided I wanted to
transfer to a bigger school and explore a new territory. Once I actually decided to transfer, then
came all of the applications and essays and…you all probably know the typical application
process. Applying to schools on top of studying for my current classes AND on top of finding
internships was so stressful my skin started breaking out, I started getting excessive migraines,
and I lost a good amount of sleep. With all these tasks popping up I thought my brain was going
to explode, so I tried to take things one step at a time. The goal was to finish all my transfer
applications before my internship applications, while also dedicating time to my school work and
time for myself. I eventually finished all my transfer applications, and had the pleasure (not
actually) of moving on to internship applications.
Here is where I call all the college girls applying for internships… sorry it took so long to get
here (my bad). When first applying to internships, I was very new to it and hesitated to apply for
MANY internships. I felt like I wasn’t qualified enough many times and would not apply. As
much as I wanted a summer internship, I was missing out on so many opportunities because I
was scared and didn’t think I was good enough. I scrolled through LinkedIn and did my stalking
(we all do it, I’m not weird), and felt discouraged when I saw a large chunk of the students at my
school somehow had much more experience than I did and seemed like THEY were qualified for
those internships I was too insecure to apply for. Although this took me a little while to realize, I
am here to tell you YOU ARE QUALIFIED. Do not think low of yourself and apply to that
internship. Stop comparing yourself to others because guess what you are not them and it is up to
you to pout about your little experience or APPLY to internships and potentially BUILD your
experience. Everyone starts somewhere and it is okay to start now. Often, students ignore
internship applications because of those qualifications listed for whatever “said” internship…I
did. However, you may not realize it but you are always qualified in some way. For example,
you may have played sports your entire life and couldn’t participate in other extra curriculars, but
there’s more…you are a team player, you are great at time management, you are a great leader.
Trust me, do not invalidate yourself and not apply because “you don’t think you’re qualified”.
Girlfriend, you have to believe in yourself and YOU ARE WORTHY!!