Name: Julia Shenkman

Year: Senior

Major(s): Anthropology and Global Health

CFS Class: Field Studies in Public Health

Employer: The Office of Senator Durbin

A lot of people take CFS their senior year to get an idea of what they are going to do after undergrad. For me, I have the next year planned out, I’ll be studying for my Master’s in Public Health. What CFS is offering is the opportunity to explore new things. As someone who has been ingrained in research for three years, my CFS internship is the chance to learn about policy and outreach, something I have little exposure to at this point. It’s opening the door to multiple career paths.

At Senator Durbin’s office, I work on casework and research. What this means is that I aid the logging of federal agency assistance cases from constituents, and conduct outreach and legislative research for various staffers in the office. It’s a rewarding experience for me, and is expanding my skills just as I had hoped it would. It’s also a reality check though. Not everything is glamorous, especially the 8am jam-packed red line into the city. And not every job is going to be. As a college student having done independent research for two years, I am used to setting my own schedule, so waking up at a 6:15am has been a struggle. It’s these changes that make CFS a really good introduction to the working world with the safety and comfort of the university behind you.