Summer 2026 Internships: Milken Scholars Dive into Their Dream Fields
Published 10/27/2026 in Program Updates
Written
by Reyes, Natalie |
10/27/2026
For college students, summers not only offer a break from the academic year, but also a chance to get real-life experience in the careers they are pursuing. Through internships, Sofia Williams, MS ‘24, and Jonali Gaylor, MS ‘24, explored the fields where they plan to launch their career – journalism and computer science. Here’s a look at how they spent their summer and what they took away.
Interning at The Bee
Sofia Williams, MS ‘24, a junior at Stanford, spent 12 weeks at The Bee, a daily newspaper published in Sacramento, covering political stories and state legislation. Her internship search began in Fall 2025, when she first applied to an online post from The Bee. About a month later, she interviewed with The Bee’s managing editor, Scott Lebar, and was later offered a position.
For twelve weeks, she lived with a relative in Sacramento and embarked on the opportunity to work at a major newspaper. Her day-to-day sometimes went beyond the normal 9-to-5 schedule, as she attended local events and rallies to conduct in-person interviews. Her assignments included covering some of the nations’ most pressing topics such as immigrant rights, labor union issues and policy initiatives. When California’s legislative session resumed in August after its summer break, she was designated as a Capitol press corps and reported on immigration and health legislation.
Her most memorable assignment was “Haitians express ‘profound fear’ as Temporary Protected Status deadline nears.” For the story, Sofia interviewed advocacy groups, immigrant legal aid organizations and members of Sacramento’s Haitian community. As she reflected on the devastating accounts of families and friends at risk of deportation, she said, “I was honored that the individuals I interviewed for this article trusted me to tell their stories and I tried my hardest to accurately reflect their sentiments.”
“What I enjoyed most, though, were the stories that combined politics with human interest to tell a story about the communities affected by government decision-making,” she said. This experience reaffirmed Sofia’s desire to pursue a career in political journalism.
Interning at Amazon
For Jonali Gaylor, MS ‘24, a junior at Hampton University, her path to interning at Amazon began during her senior year of high school, when she received the Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship. Along with financial aid, the scholarship guaranteed an internship after her freshman year of college. A D.C. native and university student in Virginia, these summer internships in Seattle have given Jonali the opportunity to explore a very different part of this country, the Pacific Northwest.
This summer, Jonali’s weekdays began around 8 a.m., to get ready for her hourlong commute to her internship. In the office, she regularly met with her mentor and manager to discuss her project, which involved analyzing the codebase to solve customer-facing problems. She enjoyed seeing the results of her work as they were directly implemented to the Amazon app. She said, “These types of projects feel more tangible because I can physically see the fruits of my own labor. The problem-solving and customer-facing elements of software development are rewarding.”
Although much of her day consisted of writing code, she also found time for office coffee runs and lunch games that helped her bond with her coworkers and fellow interns. This was a stark contrast with her first time interning at Amazon the summer after her freshman year. Back then, it was difficult for her to find the courage to break the ice and talk to new people.
This summer, she carried herself with a new sense of confidence and invested in relationships with those around her. She was intentional about building community with others and was proactive about following through with plans. At the end of her internship, her team took her out to hotpot, which she had never experienced before!
As she looked back on her summer internship, she said, “I learned that I love meeting new people, learning how people tick, and understanding why they are passionate about what they do. Software development has such a vast community of people to meet as long as you are confident in yourself and willing to put yourself out there.” Jonali is eager to continue pursuing a career in software development.
