Reflection is an important part of your LHSI experience because it helps you start to recognize and articulate the value of your experiences. We value and believe in you as a complex, whole person (not just a student or an intern). The LHSI community is a safe place to grow and thrive. Every intern experience is unique and we want to hear your story.

This year, you will use your ePortfolio as a means of sharing your story of what you are learning and how it is contributing to your professional journey. We’re going to ask questions you may never have considered before! The prompts may be the same for everyone but the responses will be unique to you: who you are, where you’ve come from, and where you’re going next. By the end of the year, you’ll have a strong starting point for future cover letters, interview responses, and personal statements. Past interns have noted how much time it saved on writing a personal statement because they already had examples, and they were better prepared to answer interviews questions like “tell me about a time you used this skill…”.

Monthly Prompts

We will have a few questions to add to your ePortfolio each month. It’s important to stay up to date on the questions to avoid feeling overwhelmed or forgetting key growth points. Some months we’ll just have a few surveys and assignments that aren’t in the ePortfolio. You are always welcome to add your reflections from those assignments to your ePortfolio if the topic resonates with you!

We’re asking these questions for a reason. This is especially important in spring because you will be editing and building on what you wrote in the fall. If you did not answer all the prompts or give any detail, we may ask you to resubmit.

The ePortfolio is a website and Google Sites automatically saves your work but does not make it publicly visible until you click Publish. If we say we can’t see your responses and you know you did it, try clicking Publish.

Be Specific and Give Examples

While working on your ePortfolio, you are expected to go beyond just listing basic information about you and your experiences. These questions are designed to help you think about, describe, and explain what’s happening that month. You will tell stories of your personal growth, give examples of how you are evolving as you progress through the internship, and connect it to your past experiences, courses, and your future goals. Your answers should not be generic essay responses with one correct response like you’d write for a class. You should tell us why these skills and experiences are important to you specifically.

This is good practice to stand out in future interviews and graduate school personal statements. Employers and graduate school admissions expect you to share specific examples based on your own unique experiences to show and tell what you’ve learned. As you write your ePortfolio answers, add detail to tell a story. For example, if you’re talking about a skill you gained we expect that you will share a specific time when you used that skill in your past or at your internship. Anyone can claim they gained communication or teamwork skills, you will need to be able to give proof by telling a story.

Past interns have struggled to give examples and be specific; learning how to give specific examples is a skill that you can learn by doing these reflections. If we give you feedback to be more specific or give an example and you thought you did, contact the ambassadors to talk through where you may have been unclear or could give more detail.

Manage Your Time

If you are a procrastinator by nature, here’s a tip: read the prompts at the beginning of each month and think it through as you work. This will make it easier to write down as you get to the deadline at the end of the month! All LHSI assignments include the approximate amount of time it should take to complete. Schedule in that amount of time to work on it, typically no more than one hour per month. You can even break up that time into chunks to see if you can get it done in less time!

Each set of prompts is typically due at the end of the month or earlier if it’s before a school break. Ambassadors review and give detailed feedback every month so it’s important to complete the assignments on time in order to get the best feedback.