Marhaban, or hello! I’m Elisabeth and I’m so excited to start blogging for Beyond the Elms this semester! I’m a sophomore and have been proud to call Scripps College my home for the past year and a half. While it has taken me a long time to decide what I want to study, I am an English and Middle East & North African Studies (MENA) major with a potential Late Antique-Medieval Studies (LAMS) minor. You may be thinking, “Elisabeth, I get the whole English major concept, but what is MENA and LAMS?” Well, my new friends, MENA is an interdisciplinary major that centers on the study of the Arabic language, culture, literature, politics, and history–basically I study Arabic language, history, and literature. LAMS is essentially me taking classes about Islam and medieval Arab history with my favorite professor.

So now comes the question my parents have been asking since day one: what do you want to do with that? Well, I’m not sure that I want to do anything with my majors directly, but I would be interested in potentially teaching English–abroad or in the US–or working in diplomacy. However, my real interest for many, many years has been in law. My dad is a lawyer and I’ve always had the idea of being a lawyer in the back of my mind. Now that I’m a sophomore, I’ve decided to start making that dream a reality. English is actually a fairly common major for students who go into law, so that correlates fairly well to my career goals.

First impressions are all about the smile 🙂

Internship-wise, I’m still searching for political or legal internships and look forward to discussing my search with you all! Ideally, I would want to intern for an organization centered around women’s issues and reproductive health. I’m applying for an internship grant through Scripps and you can find more info here. I had a paid internship with The Field Museum of Natural History in membership and annual fund–which sounds really out there until you know that I’m a manager and caller for Phonathon. I don’t think that I want to pursue a career in development, but I really enjoyed my experience and love Phonathon!

I’m excited to continue blogging about my career development and career topics. I am still figuring out majors and careers and internships and am looking forward to sharing with you! I will be sharing tips and experiences from my past internships as well as what I’m learning and working through in my current search. I will also be discussing networking and how to make your connections work for your career development. The internship search can be scary and intimidating, but it should also be exciting and fun to look into your options and opportunities! I hope you enjoy going on this journey with me!