Externship Sponsor Host: In-Person or Virtually

The Externship Program is an opportunity for current Bryn Mawr College (BMC) students to broaden their perspectives of potential career pathways, explore careers of interest, job shadow, and network with BMC alumnae/i from various professional industries. As a Host, your advice and guidance in this shadowing experience will help a student(s) to begin to identify potential career options. The structure is flexible, and Host can develop an experience for 1 day up to a week.

In lieu of hosting a student in person, Host may instead choose to meet with a student virtually for a career conversation. The video chats or phone calls are intended to be 30-60 minutes in length; however, meeting times can vary based on the Host and student schedule needs. Students will guide the conversations to learn about your career path and may seek advice regarding their plans, but we encourage Host to equally guide the interaction as experienced experts in your profession. As a volunteer, you may choose to participate in one or more career conversations with multiple students.

Winter Session (1) January 3-5, 2024
Winter Session (2) January 8-12, 2024
Winter Session (3) January 16-19, 2024
Spring Session March 11-15, 2024

Student and Host matching will be held the last week of November and early-February. After assignments are made by our office, we will send notification of student assignments and the student/s match will contact you directly to make specific arrangements.

Questions? Contact Jennifer Prudencio at jprudencio@brynmawr.edu.

Tips for a Successful Externship Experience!

Externship Host and students work out the details together for each externship, considering the students' interests and the Host availability. Consider the benefits of the following when planning your sponsorship:

Offer an itinerary for an in-person arrangement.
Coordinate with colleagues and set up times for the student to meet briefly and learn about other roles in your workplace, observe what a particular career field encompasses from the daily to long-term activities. This can be coordinated for both in-person and virtually.
Talking with the Host about his/her life. The student begins to learn about the different paths one can take and that there are many decisions one encounters after college.
Touring the office, departments, or other organizations. Helps the student see how different aspects of the same organization 'fit together' or vary in their work. This may be their first in-depth exposure to the specific career field.
Plan for a debriefing of the day to allow the student to ask more questions and process their experience.