Internship Experiences

The Washington Center

Professional Practice Built Into Your Curriculum

Get a preview of what a career in your field will be like before you even graduate with an internship. Throughout your academic journey at Florida Southern, you’ll be able to apply what you learn in your program coursework to real-world experiences. One of our industry-trained career services counselors, along with your faculty, will connect you with professional learning opportunities at local companies and organizations.

70%

of paid internships lead to jobs

200+

Career Services events hosted each year

1,000+

Internships posted each month

Internships for All Passions

Internships are available for all programs across a variety of fields, such as law, nursing, community work, entertainment, art, and more. You’ll have multiple opportunities during your time at Florida Southern to get real world experience.

Solving a Murder Case

Matt Atwater interned with the 10th Judicial Court Office of the Public Defender and helped compile evidence and documents for a murder case.

“I was responsible for outlining what happened at the scene of the murder. When I went to the crime scene I played out what happened. I explained to the murder attorneys what the discrepancies were in each person’s depositions. It was amazing.”

Training as a Nurse in Oncology

Hannah Liebmann did a summer nurse externship in Washington, D.C., at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center.

“I enjoyed the patient interaction. I developed new skills due to the high level of acuity and the rigor of the unit. I thrived living in a big city and taking the metro (subway) to work every day. However, above all, I enjoyed developing a passion and love for oncology nursing.”

Building Homes for Families in Honduras

Kallie Motola participated in the Trash Mountain Project and Armor Fe Esperanza in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

“In Honduras, my team and I built a home for a family previously living on the city trash dump. We worked with EFA, which is a free school for children in every grade, and it provides education, clothing, and meals. I went to Honduras through Ridge Point Community Church. Each year it sends a team on a mission trip, and this past summer it was with Trash Mountain Project.”

Meet our Mocs

Mark Atwater

Matt Atwater interned with the 10th Judicial Court Office of the Public Defender and helped compile evidence and documents for a murder case.

Hannah Liebmann

Hannah Liebmann did a summer nurse externship in Washington, D.C., at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center.

“I enjoyed the patient interaction. I developed new skills due to the high level of acuity and the rigor of the unit. I thrived living in a big city and taking the metro (subway) to work every day. However, above all, I enjoyed developing a passion and love for oncology nursing.”

Kallie Motola

Kallie Motola participated in the Trash Mountain Project and Armor Fe Esperanza in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

“In Honduras, my team and I built a home for a family previously living on the city trash dump. We worked with EFA, which is a free school for children in every grade, and it provides education, clothing, and meals. I went to Honduras through Ridge Point Community Church. Each year it sends a team on a mission trip, and this past summer it was with Trash Mountain Project.”

Meet our Mocs

Mark Atwater

Matt Atwater interned with the 10th Judicial Court Office of the Public Defender and helped compile evidence and documents for a murder case.

Hannah Liebmann

Kallie Motola

Meet our Mocs

Mark Atwater

Hannah Liebmann

Kallie Motola

Great Companies, Great Opportunities.

Get valuable professional experience with an internship with well-renowned companies and organizations across the nation.

Advent Health, GEICO, FBI, JIS Orthopedics, Deskovic, Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, Disney, City of Lakeland, Espinoza Law Offices P.A., Lakeland Regional Health, Florida Presbyterian, LVIM

Lockheed Martin, Phoslab Environmental Laboratories, McKEEL Academy Central, Publix, Moffitt Cancer Center, SPCA Florida, NASA, Target, Nemours Children's Health, TriCounty Human Services Inc., Polk Museum of Art, Under Armour

Intern at The Washington Center

Get the opportunity of a lifetime and intern in your field of interest through this prestigious program. Florida Southern College is the only private institution of higher education in the state of Florida partnered with The Washington Center.

Learn More

Find Your Best Fit with FSC's Support

One of our career counselors will work with you one-on-one to find internship and professional opportunities that best meet your academic and career goals. In whatever field you wish to gain experience, Florida Southern’s award-winning Career Services team is here to help you find the best fit for you.

Career Services

Take The Next Step

Whether you want to learn more or are ready to apply, we’re here to help.

Request Info Apply Today Visit FSC

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Get Your Foot in the Door with an Internship

Internships are a crucial part of experiential education — giving you the exposure, training, and mentorship necessary for a successful career in a highly competitive job market.

Every Student Has Access to Internship Opportunities

70%

of paid internships lead to jobs

200+

Career Services events hosted each year

1,000+

Internships posted each month

Intern at The Washington Center

Learn More

Great Companies. Great Experiences.

Advent Health, GEICO, FBI, JIS Orthopedics, Deskovic, Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, Disney, City of Lakeland, Espinoza Law Offices P.A., Lakeland Regional Health, Florida Presbyterian, LVIM

Meet our Mocs

Mark Atwater

Where:

Bartow, FL

10th Judicial Circuit Office of the Public Defender

What:

I worked on a murder case and summarized 600 pages of discovery for an attorney. I loved feeling like a part of the team. I was responsible for outlining what happened at the scene of the murder. When I went to the crime scene I played out what happened. I explained to the murder attorneys what the discrepancies were in each persons depositions. It was amazing.

How:

During the murder case I worked on, I was able to compile a list of neighbors who swore that they saw certain things and made a list of it on a map of the neighborhood. When I got to the crime scene, I walked to each neighbors house to see how accurate their sworn depositions were. I found a huge discrepancy with one of the neighbors and made a note of it for the attorney. The discrepancy was that one neighbor said their surveillance camera saw the entire thing, but when I went to that particular surveillance camera I noticed it was blocked by trees. I told the attorney who praised my thinking and ability to think of small things like that.

Maddie Gonzalez

Where:

Philadelphia, PA

Center for Injury and Prevention at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

What:

My favorite aspect about my internship was getting to work with so many people in different types of research jobs. My office prided itself on being diverse and interdisciplinary. It was so awesome to see engineers, physicians, nurses, and researchers from all different backgrounds work together on injury science research projects. The two co-directors of the center were female engineers who I now definitely view as personal role models. I was never dismissed as just an intern; everyone in the office was so excited to have us for the summer and get us involved in everything possible. Also, I had never spent a lot of time in Philadelphia before, so it was fun to live in and explore a new city for the summer!

How:

My advisor, Dr. Patrick Smith, encouraged me to apply to REU programs to gain more research experience. I filled out an application online, asked my professors for letters of recommendation, and wrote an essay about the project and researchers I hoped to work with over the summer. A few weeks later I was contacted and told I was a finalist. I then had a phone interview with the woman who ended up being my mentor, and a few days later I received an email saying I was accepted.

Jake Griner

Jordan Howard

Where:

Manhattan, Kansas

Kansas State University

How:

My faculty mentor, Dr. Smith, recommended that I look into summer research programs to gain additional experience before applying for graduate school, so I searched for summer research programs in my field of interest, behavioral neuroscience. I came across the application at Kansas State and was very interested in the lab there.

What:

We designed a task to parse out three individual components of episodic-like memory in rats (what, where, and when), but with the current design, we believed we were only see the utilization of two components. My graduate research mentor and I sat down and brainstormed how we could alter the task to correctly parse out the third component. After reading many journal articles and thinking critically about the issue at hand, I proposed an idea to implement in the task to look at the third component. We altered the task to reflect the idea, which allowed us to further analyze the third component and perfect the task.

Why:

My lab members were very open and accepting, and made me feel like a vital member of the lab from the very beginning. I went into work every day knowing that I was going to be challenged intellectually and pushed to do the best research possible. This has helped me, not only as a researcher, but also in my everyday life. My summer research experience greatly increased my knowledge of my major. Most importantly, I was able to take the techniques and procedures I have learned in my lectures and utilize them myself. It is one thing to read about Pavlov utilizing classical conditioning, but when you use the techniques yourself, you gain a deeper and more profound knowledge and respect for the field.

Hannah Liebmann

Where:

Washington, District of Columbia

MedStar Washington Hospital Center - 5E Oncology/Hematology

What:

I enjoyed the patient interaction. I developed new skills due to the high level of acuity and the rigor of the unit. I thrived living in a big city and taking the metro (subway) to work everyday. However, above all I enjoyed developing a passion and love for oncology nursing.

The most challenging portion of my externship was the oncology portion of this field. Oncology nursing is a intense subject that we go over senior year of nursing school. Therefore, before beginning the externship I taught myself the oncology unit of our nursing program to better prepare for the type of unit I was on. Overtime I became increasingly familiar with the chemotherapeutic agents being used and began to recognize the adverse effects and the nursing interventions for each. This was a challenging unit to be on; however, it pushed me and I am forever grateful for that.

How:

When I was a freshman at FSC, I dreamed of having the opportunity of doing a summer nurse externship. The experiences gained at these internships is priceless. As soon as applications opened, I was applying to programs all over the country. During spring break of my junior year, I drove from Lakeland to Washington D.C. to interview for a position at one of my top five choices for programs. Four days after my interview, I received my offer to become a Student Nurse Extern on the Oncology/Hematology unit at the largest metropolitan hospital in Washington D.C.

Inga Mauzy

Where:

Atlanta, GA

Defense Forensic Science Center

What:

My favorite part of this summer experience was learning about all of the techniques used to process evidence and the vast number of ways criminals can be caught. The most challenging part was understanding all of the detailed scientific concepts and procedures used to analyze evidence. For example, I was given a mock crime scene to investigate and I was able to use DNA analysis to conclude that although witnesses only reported seeing two people at the crime scene, there was, in fact, a third.

How:

The U.S. Army Cadet Command releases a list of internships to ROTC programs across the country. There is an application process in which you select three that you are interested in. You also have to participate in an interview with the Profesor of Military Science, who is in charge of the ROTC program. Then a board selects which internship you will attend.

Kallie Motola

Where:

Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Trash Mountain Project and Armor Fe Esperanza (EFA)

What:

In Honduras, my team and I built a home for a family previously living on the city trash dump. We worked with EFA, which is a free school for children in every grade, and it provides education, clothing, and meals. I went to Honduras through Ridge Point Community Church. Each year it sends a team on a mission trip, and this past summer it was with Trash Mountain Project.

Why:

I knew it was my turn to make a difference in a family’s life! I enjoy helping family members change their lives for the better. One family of three that I worked with — Antonio, Datiana and Reyna — has been living in a home made out of trash from the dump. Datiana, the youngest, has been unable to attend school because she has had to help her family work. Helping all of them get to a better place and give Datiana better opportunities was what I enjoyed most! The most challenging part for me was not staying longer.

While building the home, I connected deeply with Datiana and found out that her favorite color is pink. We eventually saved enough money to paint one of the panels in her room pink. It was so exciting to see that happen! Psychology classes at FSC helped me understand different cultures in comparison to that of the United States and the western world.

Shaelyn Robinson

Where:

Home of the Sparrow & Family Health Partnership Clinic

Mchenry/Crystal Lake, Illinois

How:

I had to both apply and interview for two positions. I found the shelter and the clinic through searching in need shelters in my area and off of the recommendations from the hospital staff I had previously volunteered with.

What:

I volunteered at a home for domestic abuse victims and a female health clinic near my home every week. My role was to tutor these women so that they were able to finally pass the GED at the end of their sessioEmily McPartlinns with me!

I enjoyed being able to actually make an impact through volunteering. Sometimes in a clinical setting, you don’t feel like you’re actually participating in the establishments mission, but in these settings I was able to lend the knowledge and experience I had for the betterment of my own community. Being underqualified to teach some of the subjects was a challenge I had to outsource to become better. Making activities for the one dyslexic women in my group was challenging and required patience and creativity to see something I find natural in a different light, and then create a learning system based off of something I cannot experience.

Why:

I am now more compassionate and patient and appreciate the opportunities I was set up with much more now than I did before this summer. Simple things like being able bodied and mentally sound are things I did not fully appreciate before my tutoring and clinical experience this summer. This relates to my career goals or being a health care provider, though not necessarily my major.

During my internship, I worked on various tasks to support the division including liquidity analysis of companies to determine creditworthiness and updating of internal client records.

Victoria Cangero

JP Morgan Chase Corporate Client Banking

A large part of my internship hours were spent doing legal research in order to apply relevant case law to the matter at hand. I was also able to sit in on trials, various types of hearings, and interviews with those involved in the prosecution process.

Alexandra Zimmer

State Attorney's Office - Bartow Florida

I would observe physical, occupational, and speech therapists who had one on one sessions with patients. There were both adult and pediatric patients and an pool for aqua sessions.

Araceli Garcia

Lakeland Regional Health - Grasslands Campus

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