Spotlight Series: Julie
Here's our first guest post, featuring Julie. She is a student in our College of Social Sciences and Humanities and College of Arts, Media, and Design. HUGE shout out to her for being so willing to share her story with us!
Hi everyone! My name is Julie and I am a fourth year, senior Political Science and Communication Studies combined major from New Jersey. Thanks to my combined program, I am a student in the both the College of Social Sciences and Humanities (CSSH) as well as the College of Arts, Media, and Design (CAMD). There are so many incredible opportunities in both colleges that are accessible to every student.
Co-op has definitely been the highlight of my time here at Northeastern. I completed my first co-op at the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where I worked as an intern/paralegal in the Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit. I got to spend the first few months of my time there working on a trial for a high-profile, original member of Al Qaeda in connection with the US Embassy bombings of East Africa in 1998. This experience was an opportunity that I never thought I would have in my life, let alone as a 19-year old college student.
For my second co-op, I wanted to see what a possible career with a Communication degree would be like, so I worked at Liberty Mutual Insurance here in Boston as an HR Representative on a strategic projects team. While I loved the company and my co-workers, this co-op was helpful for me to figure out a couple of things. One, that HR might not be the career path for me. And two, that as much as I loved working at Liberty, I want to have a career that will take me more of a non-profit root rather corporate America.
In the summer of 2015, I went on a Dialogue of Civilizations, which is a 4-6 week study abroad opportunity that runs in the summer, to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia to study the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, the Balkan war of the 1990s, and the current political climate of the region. This incredible experience inspired me to pick up my minor in International Affairs.
While my specific path here at Northeastern is unique to me, there are so many other incredible paths that students have created with their own distinct opportunities. One of the things that is so great about Northeastern is that it provides the flexibility to try new things and pursue an education both inside the classroom as well as out in the real world. In CSSH, we talk about the “Experiential Liberal Arts”, which is about gaining a liberal arts education while enhancing it with opportunities to go on co-op, to study abroad, and to conduct research. This model has given me the opportunity to grow as a student and a person in ways that wouldn’t have been possible if I had gone anywhere other than Northeastern.
