“I was a transfer student to Cornell. I chose it because of its academic excellence, beautiful campus, and, most importantly, its ILR program. I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in industrial and labor relations; I understood that the ILR School offered the best program.

“It is difficult to choose a single favorite memory of Cornell and ILR so I will offer a few - wonderful friends, Catherwood camaraderie, State Diner runs, intellectual challenges and, yes, the Cornell Bowling Team.

“The most important thing I took from my ILR education was the ability to engage in critical thinking. My ILR education has greatly influenced my career path. Through ILR, I had a summer internship with the National Labor Relations Board. That internship introduced me to the agency and to the Washington, DC, Metropolitan area, which has been my home for the last twenty three years. As a result of the summer internship, I participated in the ILR-NLRB Co-op program for a semester and another summer. Having successfully completed the program, I was able to obtain a field examiner position with the NLRB following graduation.

“I went to night law school at George Washington University while working for the NLRB during the day. In addition to receiving my law degree from GWU, I met Jill Siegel, who later became my wife and mother of our two children. Based upon my NLRB experience, I developed relationships with many employment lawyers in the District of Columbia and ultimately joined Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld, where I was employed as an associate for six years until I joined my current firm twelve years ago.

“My classmates and I benefited greatly from our internships. Based upon these experiences, consideration should be given to making internships or work-study programs a mandatory part of the ILR education. At a minimum, there should be sufficiently funded internships to meet the needs of all interested students. These internships would likely strengthen the relationship between the ILR community (students, alumni, educators, and administrators), and sponsoring organizations (corporations, labor organizations and governmental agencies). Everyone would benefit!”

—Jeffrey Pargament, ILR Connections, Spring 2003