Field Work Term

We Are Looking For Experience

Harvard’s Warneken Lab for Developmental Studies offers 11 highly sought-after internships every semester. In one year, Bennington students secured two.

We are looking img

Positions at Harvard’s Warneken Lab for Developmental Studies are competitive. Scores of ambitious, smart students from the country’s top institutions—including Harvard—compete for one of the eleven internship positions they open each semester. So it says something when in a year’s time not one but two internships were given to Bennington students.

As lab manager, Kerrie Pieloch oversees intern hiring. Pieloch says there is no exact recipe for success, but—first and foremost—she is looking for real experience, something she has found in Bennington students. “When I’m going through applications I’m looking for students who have research experience, students who have experience working with children, and although this isn’t an absolute determinate, I’m looking for students who know what they want to get out of their experience at the Lab.”

Kelly Pitman fit the bill. She was a junior at Bennington and had two Field Work Term internships under her belt, as well as a clear sense of why she wanted to work at the Lab. Her direction, ambition, and purpose made an impression. In addition to landing the internship she was invited to continue her work at the Lab that summer. More than that, Pieloch was so encouraged by her work with Kelly that she decided to advertise the internship on Bennington’s Field Work Term job board. She hired first-year student Phoebe Torchia, confident in her capacity to do the job.

Scores of ambitious, smart students from the country’s top institutions—including Harvard—compete for one of the eleven internship positions at the Warneken Lab. It says something when in a year not one but two internships are given to Bennington students.

From research assistant to researcher

Kelly’s internship in the Warneken Lab influenced the original research she conducted as part of her Bennington academic plan. This research culminated in her senior thesis: “Childhood home place attachments and their impact on identity.”