Every student who calls the School of Education and Social Policy (SESP) their home gets to do a practicum during their Northwestern career. A practicum is an internship experience in Chicago (or Washington DC or San Francisco if you do it in the summer) with an additional class and research component. Students go to their internship site 4 days per week and on the 5th day attend a class with their practicum peers. The great thing about the practicum is how diverse it is; people with very disparate interests all find relevant sites. I did mine at the North Park Village Nature Center, but I had friends at the Office of the Governor, at different charter schools, and with some of the Chicago consulting firms.
What really makes the practicum work is the amount of effort Nathan Frideres puts into the program. He is the practicum director, and right from the start of my practicum search I built up a good relationship with him. Nathan has contacts all over Chicago, and he is constantly searching for new sites to fill whatever niche interests students might have. My own interest was in environmental education and Nathan was eager to make sure I found a site that allowed me to have a rewarding experience. We did a practice interview while I was applying to sites. He is definitely the reason I was put into contact with a good amount of sites and eventually found the Nature Center.
But Nathan doesn’t stop when students find their site. Nathan takes an interest in students’ sites. He really enjoys hearing what everyone is doing and checks in with people periodically during the practicum. I found myself stopping by his office in Annenberg Hall frequently. I’d always share what I was working on, and he’d tell me about the most recent nature documentary he’d seen, or his own trips to places like the Everglades. He actually went to visit my site after I finished my practicum because he was interested in seeing more of what it was like.
Happily, I’ve maintained my relationship with Nathan. Depending on the quarter, I spend a decent amount of time in the SESP office (there’s a jar full of free candy that’s hard to avoid). Whenever I’m there I check in with Nathan and we often end up talking about some environmental topic, his family, or what stage of the practicum cycle he is currently on. I’ve also helped out with the practicum information sessions that he hosts. I’m always impressed to see how much he devotes to making the practicum experience valuable for all students and how accessible he is to students during their search. He’s great! I am certainly not alone in appreciating the help he provides, both in the practicum search and beyond.
–Jason Smith