The summer is an excellent opportunity to start planning for fellowships, grants, and internship opportunities to provide experience! While we all need to take time to rest, focus on our health, and spend hours reading, writing, and watching TV, there is also plenty of time during the summer to get ahead on future plans for internships and fellowships! This blog offers services and techniques to utilize this extra time to your advantage.

[Image Description: UCR Career Center sign, woman in blue blouse, full length brown hair, smiles at woman in a suit jacket and white blouse, full length brown hair and cardigan]

UCR Career Center: Becoming a successful professional starts with your network and the people you know, who know you, and have mentored you in your graduate school process. Whether this is a professor, a recent graduate, or you’re still forming these connections, the career center will offer many resources to find funding, find people related to your field, and explore new opportunities with you. Use your summer to start exploring opportunities for the upcoming year! UCR has many resources to help you plan, from opportunities to advance your portfolio, headshots, and professional presentation, and most importantly, to finding internships and work opportunities within your field! 

[Image Description: Two men with glasses smile and write down things on paper, one in a pale green button up, white complexion and light brown hair, the second man of Brown complexion, black hair and dark blue shirt.]

Graduate Writing Center: Now that you have explored what internships, fellowships, and work opportunities, get to writing! With one-on-one consultations and writing center workshops through the summer, application stress will be a thing of the past (at least, the first steps will be!) The writing center offers programs ranging from NSF-Fulbright, job application materials, resumé revising, and more. Before submitting these applications, head over to the writing center web page and book an appointment to get you started in the right direction. 

[Image Description: Man and woman sit in chairs with a blue background, entitled “Networking” both smile at each other, wearing business multicolored sweater, and the woman wearing a blue dress. A small stand sits between them, with a flower in a vase and a stack of books.]

Networking: Now that you have more free time – start cultivating your online business presence! As much as we may try to deny it, social media is a part of the job/internship/fellowship-finding process. You can find opportunities through that networking, and the boards reviewing your materials for their job/internship/fellowship will be looking at your social media to see if you’re a good fit! Try LinkedIn, Facebook, or other social media that may further your career, emphasizing your accomplishments and interests for future opportunities!

Summer should be used for rest, but it can also be helpful to look ahead and save yourself some work down the line. Relax and enjoy your summer, but don’t forget that you can start getting some future work done!

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Caption: Relax and enjoy the opportunities UCR has to offer!