2 answers
Elyse
Student
Scotch Plains, New Jersey
1
Question
Asked
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What should I do during my first year of college to prepare for internships and future career opportunities?
I'm 18 years old and will be starting college at the University of Scranton in fall 2026. I’m excited to begin this new chapter while studying psychology at a four-year college. I want to make sure I’m making the most of my first year and setting myself up early for internships and future career opportunities. I don’t have much experience in the field yet, but I’m interested in psychology-related careers and want to start building my resume as soon as possible.
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2 answers
Chinyere Okafor
Educationist and Counseling Psychologist
1425
Answers
Port Harcourt, Rivers, Nigeria
Updated
Chinyere’s Answer
Hi Elyse,
You are already doing something smart by thinking about internships before college even begins. Many students wait too long, but starting early gives you a real advantage. Your first year is less about having everything figured out and more about building momentum.
Focus on doing well academically, joining one or two campus activities, and gaining some experience. Since you’ll study psychology at University of Scranton, look into psychology clubs, volunteer roles, research opportunities, or mentoring programmes. Also visit the career centre early, they can help with résumés, internships, and planning.
Most importantly, build relationships with professors and stay curious about different psychology career paths. You do not need a perfect plan right now. If you stay involved and keep taking small steps, opportunities will grow faster than you think.
Best wishes!
You are already doing something smart by thinking about internships before college even begins. Many students wait too long, but starting early gives you a real advantage. Your first year is less about having everything figured out and more about building momentum.
Focus on doing well academically, joining one or two campus activities, and gaining some experience. Since you’ll study psychology at University of Scranton, look into psychology clubs, volunteer roles, research opportunities, or mentoring programmes. Also visit the career centre early, they can help with résumés, internships, and planning.
Most importantly, build relationships with professors and stay curious about different psychology career paths. You do not need a perfect plan right now. If you stay involved and keep taking small steps, opportunities will grow faster than you think.
Best wishes!
Christina Yu
Communications & Corporate Affairs
2
Answers
Hartford, Connecticut
Updated
Christina’s Answer
Hi, Elyse—very exciting that you're starting school soon, and great that you're thinking ahead, and Chinyere's response above hits on a lot of my advice as well.
Given that this will be your first year, I'd really encourage you to get a breadth of experiences and courses in early on, unless you know for certain that you have a targeted area of interest (child psychology, clinical psychology, etc.).
I also suggest connecting with both the career center and also the psychology department (maybe your advisor, if you have one within that department). Specifically, ask them whether or not they personally know any psychology alums who they know would be open to an informational interview. An informational interview is really just a casual conversation that you would have with a person (phone or video call) to learn more about their job, career path, and ask any questions you have to that individual. Find people who have different careers who also studied psychology—those careers might be within the psychology field itself, but psychology takes people to many different careers (I have a BA is psychology but work in Communications and Corporate Affairs).
In your post, you mentioned wanting to start building your resume even though you don't have any experience in the field yet—which is okay and also expected given you're just starting college! That said, your career center can advise you on how you can weave insights or projects from your psychology courses into your resume in lieu of an actual job or internship experience for now.
Good luck! Happy to answer any follow-up questions here as well.
Given that this will be your first year, I'd really encourage you to get a breadth of experiences and courses in early on, unless you know for certain that you have a targeted area of interest (child psychology, clinical psychology, etc.).
I also suggest connecting with both the career center and also the psychology department (maybe your advisor, if you have one within that department). Specifically, ask them whether or not they personally know any psychology alums who they know would be open to an informational interview. An informational interview is really just a casual conversation that you would have with a person (phone or video call) to learn more about their job, career path, and ask any questions you have to that individual. Find people who have different careers who also studied psychology—those careers might be within the psychology field itself, but psychology takes people to many different careers (I have a BA is psychology but work in Communications and Corporate Affairs).
In your post, you mentioned wanting to start building your resume even though you don't have any experience in the field yet—which is okay and also expected given you're just starting college! That said, your career center can advise you on how you can weave insights or projects from your psychology courses into your resume in lieu of an actual job or internship experience for now.
Good luck! Happy to answer any follow-up questions here as well.