Cantigny’s intern program offers veterans work experience, career assessment

In keeping with its founder’s passion for helping other veterans, Cantigny Park for the past two years has sponsored an intern program for area veterans to gain practical work experience while also getting assistance with career assessment, job searching, interviewing, resume writing, cover letter preparation and networking.

“When we decided to do an intern program here, we wanted to honor the veterans in the way that Bob McCormick would want us to,” said Erum Baig, a human resource fellow with Cantigny. “As a World War I veteran, one of his biggest passions was to give back to the military.”

The Cantigny program follows the lead of a successful veteran intern program that began in 2016 at the Chicago Botanic Garden, which also is funded by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

The Chicago Botanic Garden program has provided internships for 62 veterans in more than 16 departments.

Beginning in 2023, Cantigny sponsored its own 12-week paid program, which offers work experience and job-search training for area veterans.

In 2023, Cantigny had three veteran interns. This year, it had five. They worked in security, guest services, horticulture, McCormick House (artifacts/collections), forestry and the audio-visual department.

At the conclusion of last year’s program, one veteran went back to school and two returned as seasonal employees.

The program is designed to combine training, prevocational internships and nature-based experiences to help individuals transition into the civilian workforce while addressing their workforce reintegration challenges in a supportive environment.

There is no age or service requirement. The only requirement, Baig said, is that each veteran was honorably discharged.

Veterans are matched to jobs based on availability, physical requirements and the veteran’s interests.

Throughout the internship, on alternating Tuesdays, the veterans are given the opportunity to shadow other departments, which Baig said can be invaluable to veterans. The other Tuesdays are devoted to developing job-search skills.

“Just being exposed to these other types of careers will start a pivot in action,” Baig said.

Intern Gabby Rushing, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2017 to 2021 after graduating high school, said her time at Cantigny has sparked a whole new career path.

Rushing worked as a data analyst in the military and followed that with a job in analytics in the private sector.

“I realized I wasn’t happy,” Rushing said.

With the help of a vocational specialist, Rushing heard about the program at Cantigny.

This past summer, Rushing worked in the forestry department. Her duties included planting and watering trees and “giving them their yearly haircuts.”

She was determined to learn how to identify trees and plants by their branches and leaves.

Rushing now works at Cantigny as a seasonal employee and during the other portion of the year she’s in school studying botany.

“Being in nature is my passion,” Rushing said. “I tried IT, cooking, English and marketing. Working here, I realized I wanted to be outside working. My goal is to have my own farm and run it.”

One of the unexpected benefits of working at Cantigny is the calming nature of the park. Sometimes while on breaks, the veterans will take a walk around the property.

Baig said some veterans have said coming to work in such a peaceful place has helped them in their personal lives.

Cantigny has plans to continue the program next summer with hopes of additional veterans applying.

Veteran Biff Yeager participated in the program working in both the audio-visual and guest services departments.

Some nights he set up movie screens or dance floors and helped prepare for the concerts that are held on the grounds.

Yeager, who served in the Marine Corps from 1981 to 1985, had a 35-year career in photography that included long-term stints as the photographer for two Chicago radio stations, The Loop radio and Maxim magazine. Now he’s lending his expertise by taking photographs at Cantigny that are used on social media.

Yeager said he hopes to get some freelance opportunities from the intern experience. He already snagged a client to add to his extensive photography portfolio of architecture/real estate, cityscape and head shots.

Army veteran Andre Pierce served in Iraq and Germany from 1999 to 2010, including two years of combat duty. He worked in security at Cantigny as part of the intern program.

Pierce previously worked in a variety of fields including health care, carpentry and transportation.

“Cantigny is a nice environment, the atmosphere and dynamics,” Pierce said.

His days this summer consisted of monitoring the 500 acres of the park and working at the entrance booth collecting parking fees.

Alex Garcia, an Army veteran who served from 2002 to 2006 as a cavalry scout in Iraq, worked for a long time at the Midwest Shelter for Homeless Veterans. He recently graduated from Aurora University with a degree in graphic design.

As part of his internship with Cantigny, Garcia digitalized Col. McCormick’s personal photos.

The project was very detail oriented.

“It is like watching the History Channel in real life,” Garcia said. “I find Easter eggs every day. It doesn’t even feel like work.

“This program is in a world of its own. It is not a government initiative. It is through the goodness of people and the generosity of Col. McCormick.”

In scanning the colonel’s old documents, Garcia said he came across letters from veterans asking for assistance, something McCormick was committed to doing.