CHC Students Shared Experiences and Advice at Internship Panel
By Mikey Hadley
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My name is Mikey Hadley, and I am a communications assistant for Commonwealth Honors College (CHC) at UMass. Last week, I had the pleasure of interviewing three CHC students and Student Advisory Board members—Valentina Fernanda Ravaioli, John Ferriera, and Luke Abraham—who hosted a Zoom panel, Internship Insights: CHC Edition, on Monday, April 14th. The student-led event was designed to offer firsthand insights into navigating the internship process and to provide practical advice to students looking to get a foot in the door.
Firstly, I asked the hosts why they felt the need to host a panel like this, and what kind of benefit they thought it would bring to students. Valentina Fernanda Ravaioli, a junior political science and sustainable community development major, expressed the need to try and bring the CHC community closer:
“As someone who is part of the board and the Honors College community in general, it's important to try to bring more unity, more community to the Honors College residential area. We were all trying to find a way to have a student-led event that relates to our professional career paths. Talking about internships is really important, especially for those in their earlier college years, and I think anything that's peer to peer brings a lot of value because you're talking to someone that has been through those experiences, but is still almost your same age.”
I also asked all three students about some of the most pivotal moments in their journeys with internships so far, and what encouraged them to share their experiences with other UMass students. For John Ferriera, a senior biochemistry and molecular biology major, interning at the UMass Chan Medical School over the summer exposed him to the field of rheumatology:
“Being exposed to rheumatologists, as well as patients suffering from chronic rheumatological conditions, it clicked in me that this is a really interesting field that I wouldn't have otherwise known about. I'm hoping to go into a career in medicine, and this internship showed me a side of medicine that I didn't even know existed beforehand, and it pushed me to further explore what being a caregiver means in the broader context of medicine,” he explained.
“That was my pivotal moment, but just in general, I also found connecting with other like-minded interns very useful, and working with professionals in my field to be super beneficial in terms of building connections and growing my network,” Ferriera added.
Ferriera also stressed during the panel that internships don’t need to perfectly align with long-term goals to be worthwhile.
“Apply early and often—even to things you’re not sure about,” he advised. “You might discover something you love—or learn what you definitely don’t want to do. Both are equally valuable.”
This was also a sentiment that Ravaioli echoed. A self-described “early intern,” her resume already included work with a UMass social media team, a Harvard-based nonprofit, and Live Nation Entertainment, where she served as a sustainability manager.
“I thought I wanted to manage concerts,” she said. “But working 12-hour days in that environment made me realize I’m more interested in entertainment law—advocating for artists and working on policy behind the scenes.”
Curious about how much the internship experience offered in terms of hands-on learning versus classroom experience, I spoke with Luke Abraham, a senior biology and microbiology major, whose internship at UMass Chan Medical School had allowed him to work full-time in a wet lab.
“In a class, you’re there max an hour and 30 to absorb as much as you can, and then you’re off to do your own thing. In the research environment, I felt there was constantly something for me to learn. I was lucky — the lab that I was placed in was really results-based, and they were always overturning data, always trying new experiments,” he explained.
“And so in that way, the whole day was just research. And more importantly, I think the fact that I had my mentor there at all times really influenced my growth because in a classroom, you really only have face-to-face contact with your professor for that brief amount of class time."
"In this internship, I was constantly asking questions throughout the day, which I think really furthered my learning,” Abraham added.
He credited the experience not only with honing his lab skills but with helping him realize that research alone wasn’t his long-term goal.
“It was an amazing internship, but it also showed me that full-time research isn’t what I want to do forever. That clarity is just as valuable as any skill I gained.”
In an environment where internships can often feel overwhelming, Internship Insights: CHC Edition offered actionable tips from students who had successfully navigated the process. The event was meant to be especially helpful for underclassmen looking to take their first steps into the world of internships.
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Mikey Hadley
Mikey Hadley is a communications assistant in Commonwealth Honors College
