One Student’s Successful Summer

Pictured: The Office of Career Success and Experiential Education offers many career-building opportunities for students and alumni, including career fairs.

Through the Internship Certificate Program, 142 students landed jobs with more than 100 employers this past year. And their internships were unlike any of their peers in the past, with some working remotely, in-person, or in hybrid models. Despite the obstacles the COVID-19 pandemic presented in the workplace, New York Tech students rose to the challenge and were recognized by their supervisors for their outstanding work ethic and willingness to learn and contribute. In fact, 76 percent were offered continuing work in the fields of interior design, computer science, and healthcare, with companies such as Siemens Financial Services, Kari-Out, and Google.

The Internship Certificate Program is just one of many opportunities available to students and alumni through the Offices of Career Services and Experiential Education. To provide them with even more opportunities, the offices merged into the Office of Career Success and Experiential Education, building on the accomplishments of both offices, including supporting student employees through professional development, facilitating the First Destination Survey, providing career development support, internship and full-time employment opportunities, and managing experiential education programs.

“This new office will create a seamless experience for students through their career development and employment while at New York Tech and beyond,” says Adrienne McNally, M.S., director of experiential education. “Additionally, employers will have a full spectrum of opportunities to engage with New York Tech faculty, staff, and students.”

One student that has taken advantage of these services is computer science major Sakshi Rambhia (B.S. ’21). Through New York Tech’s Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP), Rambhia, a first-generation student, worked as a summer intern at Google, where she was tasked with coding, analysis, and natural language processing. She was able to build off of the foundational coding skills she learned at New York Tech to learn production coding at Google. This wasn’t Rambhia’s first internship. She also worked at Microsoft Corporation in Spring 2021, a position she got through the Internship Certificate Program. Both experiences have been valuable for her professional development. “Microsoft has a growth mindset culture while Google is more focused on innovation,” she said of the experiences.

Through Consultants for the Public Good, New York Tech’s skills-based service program, Rambhia developed a responsive website for the U.S. Collegiate Congress (part of the United Nations) in Summer 2019 and created marketing strategies to increase enrollment for the Bennett Conservatory of Music in Spring 2019. She also worked as a student aid for International and Experiential Education in 2019 through 2021, previously under the Office of Student Employment and now under Career Success and Experiential Education. She was also a mentor to middle school students at the New York Tech Middle School Maker Academy in August 2020, where participants learned about STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) topics and careers, and the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals.

As Rambhia prepares to graduate in December 2021, she is also preparing to enter the workforce and is expected to receive several full-time offers.

“Sakshi is an advocate for equal access to education and opportunities, and she aims to help all the students around the world gain access to it,” says Amy Bravo, M.A., senior director of experiential education. “She aims to break all barriers related to it, ranging from patriarchy to inaccessibility. She believes that there are ample opportunities available and works to ensure students have access to them.”

Learn more about the Office of Career Success and Experiential Education.

This article was contributed by Adrienne McNally.