Jennifer W. Knowles '89 and Robert M. Knowles P'21, '23, '25 Internship Fund

In the Summer of 2025, I had the privilege of interning with SealRescue Ireland, where I assisted in the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of stranded seals along the Irish coast.  My responsibilities included daily animal husbandry, such as feeding, medical monitoring and habitat maintenance, as well as developing enrichment activities to encourage natural behaviors. I also contributed to the center's education initiatives by leading tours and engaging with visitors on marine conservation issues.

Throughout my internship with USA Tournament Series, I had the privilege of working alongside a team while also having to lead interns of my own. I was fortunate enough to travel around the state of Massachusetts for baseball events while also marketing for the company.

This summer, I had the opportunity to intern at two prominent financial institutions in Slovenia: Nova KBM and UniCredit Bank Slovenia. These experiences were pivotal in shaping my future career aspirations.

At Nova KBM, I interned as a Treasury and Trading Analyst. My responsibilities included participating in market discussions, creating internal reports and presentations, and developing trading indicators in Pine Script to enhance trading performance. This role gave me my first real exposure to the dynamics of financial markets and the intricacies of trading.

This summer I learn about Japanese Business culture while interning at a startup company called MatchHat doing community outreach and marketing strategy. I am enthusiastic about the arts and am dedicated to art history, theory, and building a strong portfolio. The opportunity to participate in an internship abroad has taught me so many valuable lessons while encouraging me to pursue even more knowledge about business and the arts.

During my internship at Yale I spent most of my time analyzing microscope images from the lab to quantify the number and types of cells within lung section samples. I edited images, identified cells, created pipelines, and troubleshooted analsysis to help present data showing links between cell stress and key cells in the lung. 

Working with Inland Woods and Trails ("IWT") allowed me to get first-hand experience in sustainable land management. I now have a stronger understanding of what it takes to manage large swaths of land both as part of the office staff of a nonprofit and as a member of the trail crew. I worked on several projects that allowed my to apply the skills I have gained at SLU. On one such project, I worked on a NRCS grant to create bat habitat on IWT lands. I used my background in conservation biology to identify ideal habitat.

This summer, I had the opportunity to explore a career in marketing and operations with a surf school company named Better Surf Thailand. My main task was to create content to promote the company's surf camp campaign. I organized a social media plan for company branding and learned to barter content with several hotels to gain sponsors for the company. I was responsible for the creative side, while my co-workers handled strategy planning.

The Iraqi education system, while very rigorous, lacks a fundamental pillar, which is effective teaching. Teachers are under appreciated and under compensated, creating a market for privatized teaching. This creates a situation where only those with the money can get a proper education, and since more than half of Iraq’s population lives under poverty, this creates a big problem. Those living in poverty lack access to proper education. Limited education ensures the continuation of the cycle of poverty, violence, and overall poor living situation.

The work conducted by detection canines and their handlers can be invaluable for locating targets that are otherwise difficult to find using human or mechanical practices. These canines must search effectively and efficiently and are trained to work through many environmental conditions that alter the way odor presents within an environment.

During the summer of my senior year, I was privileged to intern at a remarkable nonprofit organization in Detroit, MI, serving as a Program Development intern. Throughout those months, I delved into four pivotal projects concurrently, all aimed at nurturing the program's internal growth. My primary focus was on guiding college-bound students in the program, assisting them in preparing for their higher education journey.

My responsibilities as a part of the innovation team at Mirror Foundation consisted of co-teaching a child with a learning disability in English, teaching another child how to use different tools in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, and teaching the staff professional English every two days of the week. In addition, I also helped translate PowerPoints related to a project about helping individuals with disability get access to jobs.

I had a research fellowship at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia Irving Medical Center. I used the patient portal EPIC to collect data for a paper looking at the guideline directed therapies for LVAD patients. The abstract of this paper will be presented at the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplant meeting in April of 2024. Since I helped with this project, I will be one of the authors on this published paper. Along with this, I also attended the New York-Presbyterian Heart Transplant Summit where I learned about the future of the heart transplant, with talks from Dr.

This summer I interned at Intellegam, a tech startup located in Munich, Germany. I had always wanted to intern at a startup due to the increased responsibility and being able to see the impact of my work in real time. I was given a variety of tasks ranging from maintaining and updating databases to developing my own virtual AI assistant to be deployed on its own website. 

During my summer internship at a public library in Lahore, I had the privilege of working in a unique and inclusive environment, catering especially to women and queer individuals. This experience was a transformative journey that allowed me to lead significant initiatives and make a meaningful impact.

In the course of the three months, I had the great luck of working with professionals in the business industry in Albania, working as a Data Analyst. This was all made possible due to the hard work of Center for Career Excellence at St. Lawrence University and the generous donations of Jennifer W. Knowles ’89 and Robert M. Knowles P’21, ’23, ’25 Internship Fund. This experience gave me strong foundation in the work setting allowing me to create a wide network of connections in the business arena of Albania. 

This summer I participated in a twelve week long internship as a marine mammal research and education intern with the New England Aquarium. The internship has two major components which is recording data on marine life, specifically whales and engaging with passengers on the boat on topics related to ocean conservation.