We love hearing stories about changemakers who find great opportunities on our website. We recently came across this piece from Aja Rigenbach, a student at Northwestern University on how she found and landed her first internship through Idealist:

I have been working as a “Program Assistant” (just a fancy word for “intern”) at an organization called WorldChicago. In general, WorldChicago hopes to promote citizen diplomacy by welcoming international visitors to the city and arranging professional meetings for them with leaders and community member in Chicago. Many of the visitors come through a specific program called the International Visitors Leadership Program which focuses in on a particular theme for discussions during their visits…

So how did I find this position? Honestly, it was kind of by chance. A friend from home told me about a website called idealist.org that posts jobs and internships for the more philanthropic/non-profit/NGO sector (I would actually recommend it to anyone interested in that work who has not found good job listings anywhere else). I was scrolling through it one day during spring quarter and noticed a summer intern position open at WorldChicago. After emailing the contact person, I quickly heard back that the position was full unless I would be available for late summer into September – what luck, thanks quarter system! So I was able to set up an interview at their office downtown and began my journey as an up-and-coming professional.

Read more about her journey — and questions she asked on her interview that wowed her interviewer — here on the Northwestern UCS Career Development Blog.