By: Sean Nasi, DePaul University digital cinema major ’15

DePaul Diaries is a day-in-the-life blog series written by DePaul students. The series unveils DePaulians’ experiences as interns in their field of choice. Students share their honest thoughts about their experiences, what they learned as an intern and advice for students who are interested in the same field.

After spending three months in the summer as an IT intern for Mercy Home for Boys and Girls, Jeffrey Hoffman, DePaul information assurance and security engineer major, felt more confident about networking diagnostics. As an intern, Jeffrey was tasked with various important security responsibilities, such as vulnerability scans, creating security policies, and general help desk.

“I worked with a small team of people, so I really had some unique hands-on learning experiences,” Jeffrey said. “I was able to sit down with my managers and discuss how certain things work, such as new networking systems I’ve never seen.”

At Mercy Home, Jeffrey felt “extremely valued as an intern,” and was grateful for the opportunity to apply new skills that he learned through hands-on work experiences, such as problem solving, communication, presentation, and technical skills.

“I learned a lot of technical information, but I applied that knowledge in a critical thinking, problem solving environment,” Jeffrey said. In doing so, he also learned more about business operations as a whole, and how information security fits into the puzzle.

Jeffrey believes that the best interns take the initiative to make the experience a positive one. Some advice he would give to future interns are:

• Actively listen and keep an open mind
• Ask questions
• Absorb everything you can. Internships don’t last forever, so get as much out of it as you can. It will be your foundation when it comes to looking for a different job

Jeffrey certainly got the most out of his internship; He is now working part-time at the organization, proving that asking questions and keeping an open mind pays off.

Want to learn about DePaul’s University Internship Program? Check it out, here, or send inquiries to UIP@depaul.edu. Need help finding an internship? Visit depaul.joinhandshake.com, or come into DePaul’s Career Center to meet with an advisor.