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Abbe Rosenthal, MA, PCC, DYL Certified Coach

Are you looking for a way to gain academic credit and learn through experience? Look no further than our internship program. Led by MBS executive coach and Assistant Director Abbe Rosenthal, MA, PCC, DYL Certified Coach, this course runs alongside a professional or research internship and provides professional development and leadership training. Students strategize how to apply and leverage their MBS education to make the most of their internship experience.  

Complete a professional internship for an external organization (you can even complete an internship within your current place of work through a different department) or a research internship with a professor on campus. Professional internships can count as either a business or science elective, while research internships count as a science elective. 

In the summer 2023 semester, MBS students completed projects at CooperGenomics, L’Oreal, DSM-Firmenich, PepsiCo, Colgate-Palmolive, Ingredion, Amazon, Catalent, and even Rutgers MBS! Students were of all different concentrations, completing projects in diverse fields, including genomics, artificial intelligence, fragrance development, automation engineering, analytics, cybersecurity, and supply chain.  

Of the 25 students in this class, 80% had their internship extended, and 10% were converted to full-time employment. In addition to providing students with opportunities to grow their skills and meet key stakeholders within companies, these internships also help students become more confident during professional interviews.  

Through the completion of internships, students gain a new perspective on their careers, explore fields of interest, and gain both soft skills and technical skills in areas such as collaboration, teamwork, problem-solving, project planning, storytelling, communication, and leadership. This course also highlights the value of the MBS degree, enabling students to directly relate how their courses prepared them for their internships.  

Priscilla Costa

For Priscilla Costa, an MBS student concentrating in Drug Discovery and Development, this internship opened new and exciting doors. After completing an internal internship at Novartis, she was promoted from Clinical Sciences Specialist to Clinical Sciences Manager. For her internship, Costa led the creation of a dashboard to show clinical trials metrics to the leadership team. During her internship, Costa received guidance from Rosenthal, support from her supervisors, and opportunities to learn from her fellow classmates.

Costa has been working on the project for the past year. She had volunteered to lead this project after recognizing the need for a dashboard to show all clinical trials metrics in order to provide oversight to the leadership team. She chose to enroll in the internship course to receive mentorship from Rosenthal and share her experience with other interns.   

Costa met with stakeholders across the company, understanding what exactly was needed and how members of her company could work together across departments to accomplish this task. This was a fantastic opportunity for her to meet more people at her company, especially since she is still a relatively new employee. This internship allowed her to step outside of her comfort zone and learn new leadership skills.   

This project had a tremendous impact. The creation of this dashboard empowered information sharing and collaboration across the organization, allowing users to see accurate clinical trials data to facilitate decision-making.  

“This is a great a great opportunity to not only lead a project, but also further develop your career,” said Costa.  

Our internship course runs during the fall, spring, and summer semesters. To find out more, visit our internship webpage

Author(s): Julianna Rossano Published on: 09/27/2023
Tags: Career Edge, internship