Government Graduate Student Clare Brock
“I derived great benefit from participating in the IE program as a graduate student mentor on two dimensions. The first dimension, and most important, is that it is fulfilling and enjoyable to work with motivated, bright undergraduates who are interested in going to graduate school. Mentoring these students often provided me with a fresh perspective on ideas and literatures I thought I knew, and gave me the opportunity to share my own passion for scholarship with a new generation of future researchers and teachers. The second dimension of benefit is the pedagogical practice of interacting with undergraduates on a one-to-one basis. Mentoring through the IE program provided me the opportunity to develop skills that I now use on a daily basis as a professor. The IE program also provides tremendous value to students by giving them a glimpse into graduate and professional academic life. It is for this reason that I am developing a similar program at Texas Woman's University. By bringing the IE Internship to TWU, the goal is for our undergraduates to be highly competitive, and highly prepared for graduate school. We also hope that those students who decide not to go on to graduate school will have a clearer picture of the skills and the intellectual value that they will bring to their future endeavors in the post-baccalaureate world something that also is a major goal of IE.“