WorkLife Office Student Interns and Employees Shine
May 31, 2023
The MSU WorkLife Office is proud of the student interns and employees that joined the team for the 2022-23 academic year. Their talents supported the WLO in accomplishing an amazing amount of work and provided the resources to offer top notch programming to faculty, staff and graduate student employees. Their commitment to the WLO helped the team rise to meet the needs of the university after the violence on campus in February 2023. We are grateful for the opportunity to work side by side these amazing students and thank them for their hard work and dedication.
WorkLife Office Spring 2023 Student Interns and Staff
- Bella Berns—Family Services & Social Work Student Intern
- Tess Bond—Family Services & Social Work Student Intern
- Ky (Vanessa) Nguyen—Family Services Student Inter and Research & Project Student Assistant
- Emerson Stehlik—Student Clerical Assistant III
Bella Burns
Bella Berns interned with Michigan State University WorkLife Office since August 2022. Starting as an undergraduate in 2021, she came back as a Graduate Student in the Master of Social Work program. Bella studies dovetail with work she has done with the WorkLife Office, providing resources to MSU faculty, staff, and post-docs in areas of community connections, caregiving, equity, and inclusion, and creating supportive workplaces.
Bella’s work included creating Qualtrics reports for Wellbeing Wednesday, Women’s Networking Association, International Employee Resource Groups and listening sessions. Bella’s major project was Wellbeing Wednesday sessions. These sessions focused on: workplace wellbeing, mental health well-being, and physical and spiritual well-being. Bella compiled resources from community members to thrive in any situation. Bella supported MSU faculty, staff, students, and community members after the violence on campus in February 2023. She worked with the WLO team to coordinate community therapists to provide telehealth services to address the trauma experienced by students and staff.
Tess Bond
Tess Bond worked as an undergraduate social work intern for the WorkLife Office since September 2022. She graduated in May with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work with a minor in Human Behavior and Social Services. After graduating, she will attend the University of Michigan and pursue a master’s degree in social work with a concentration in Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health and Substance Abuse.
Tess helped with organizational tasks including resource lists, attendance data sheets, surveys, and one-pagers. One of the highlights of Tess’s internship experience was shadowing WLO consultations. She gained experience in client interaction and appreciated the opportunity to employ her social work skills. Tess created Qualtrics surveys, researched available resources, and shadowed final-round job candidates who were in the last stages of the interview process. Job shadowing gave her the opportunity to learn about hiring practices and to meet MSU job candidates from all over the world. Shadowing the individual consultants provided key insight on ‘meeting folks where they are.’ Tess observed empowerment techniques that facilitated clients identifying their wants and needs to improve their lives.
Our student team is instrumental to the work within the office. They bring their own expertise and an incredible dedication to their role. We are fortunate for their contributions to projects both big and small. We hope they leave with a standard for positive workplace culture that they can take with them into their future aspirations.
Vanessa Nguyen
Vanessa Nguyen is a student employee and an intern at the Michigan State University WorkLife Office. She graduated in May with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and two minors in Youth and Society, and Law, Justice, and Public Policy. Her experience at the WorkLife Office assisted her in understanding mental health support, a healthy work-life balance, supportive and inclusive work environments and resource advocacy. This fall, Vanessa will be working as a Behavior Technician at the MSU Early Learning Institute, gaining further experience before going to graduate school in 2024.
Vanessa worked on article summaries and presentations for the Supervisor Training Series. Her biggest project with the WorkLife Office was participating in the planning for the Take Your Child to Work Day that occurred in April. She contacted and coordinated activities with 30+ university departments for 1,610 employees and their children. The purpose of this event was to create a family fun bonding day where MSU employees showed their kids what their work is all about and the exciting things that happen at the university.
Emerson Stehlik
Emerson Stehlik is a student employee for the WorkLife Office. She is a rising third year and is studying Advertising Management with a double minor in Business and Sales Leadership in the School of Communication Arts and Sciences.
For the past year, Emerson has been working on Dependent Care Tracking, a resource available for MSU Staff, faculty, and students, and helping with projects like Bi-Weekly Promotional Emails and Take Your Child to Work Day. Emerson plans to stay with the WorkLife Office next and expand her role to include social media and advertising.
Contact the WorkLife Office at worklife@msu.edu to learn more about student team.
