In the modern educational landscape, combining humanities knowledge with technological competencies is becoming increasingly relevant. This very idea is at the core of the project “STEM Skills for Humanities Students”, which is being implemented at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. Within this project, philology students have the opportunity to gain experience in interdisciplinary interaction, develop analytical thinking, and acquire skills in working with innovative technologies.

In the summer of 2025, the program participants completed internships at various institutions – a private law firm and a public organization – where they were able to apply their STEM knowledge in a real professional environment.

Internship at a Private Law Firm

Two students from the Faculty of Philology, Tetiana Tsizdin and Alina Yurkiv, completed a four-week internship (August 18, 2025 – September 12, 2025) at “ANDRIY YASINOVSKYY LAW FIRM ASSET’S PROTECTION” as part of the project “STEM Skills for Humanities”.

This firm was founded in 2020 by a group of like-minded individuals with the aim of combining ideas, experience, skills, technologies aimed at protecting their client’s assets. The main areas of firm’s activity are: protection of foreign investments, tax and criminal law. 

The internship coordinators were Iryna Zbyr (from IFNUL) and Mychailo Kondra (from firm). 

The internship provided hands-on experience in legal analysis, contract review, and the use of AI tools (ChatGPT and Gemini) to support professional legal work. The program combined linguistics analysis, and legal perspectives to prepare students for interdisciplinary challenges.

During the internship, the students first got an introduction to the work of a law firm, in particular, the use of AI tools in routine and daily work (sorting and forwarding letters, distributing partners’ responsibilities) and for building matrices and complex algorithms in gathering information and handling complex legal cases.

Tetiana Tsizdin was given to use AI (ChatGPT and Gemini) to prepare a legal analysis of the provisions of the Ukrainian draft law “On Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine and Other Laws of Ukraine Regarding Support for Defense Industry Enterprises” (reg. No. 13420), in particular, to form matrices of risks of the draft law and proposals for their minimization, as well as to visualize sections of the draft law and infographics of calculated values (for example, tax impact).

Alina Yurkiv used AI to prepare a legal analysis of the provisions of a model contract for the procurement of defense goods (https://dpa.mod.gov.ua/document/9f916958-fdfa-403e-bd91-9df4c48d5ebe), in particular, she ensured that the terms of the agreement complied with Ukrainian legislation and judicial practice, assessed the balance of interests of the Parties in accordance with the terms of the model agreement, and prepared tables of differences in the interests of the Parties.

Mychailo was impressed by the students’ motivation and mentioned that he is ready to work with humanities students in the future using AI tools. 

The internship provided Tetiana and Alina with valuable practical experience in both legal and interdisciplinary skills. It demonstrated the integration of AI in legal practice, strengthened analytical competences and offered insights into legislative and contractual processes. These experiences contribute significantly to their professional development in linguistics, analytical, and legal domains.

Internship at a Public Organization

After completing the STEM course for humanities, two students of the Philology Faculty (Ivan Franko National University of Lviv) Olena Kovalоvska and Mariіa Mandziuk, took part in an internship at the non-governmental organization “Center for Ukrainian Studies”. The Center promotes the Ukrainian language and culture in the world and offers various types of educational services. One of the largest projects of the Center is the International Summer and Winter Schools (online and offline) “Ukrainian Language and Country Studies”. In addition, the Center offers online classes in Ukrainian as a foreign language for anyone who would like to improve their level of Ukrainian or start learning it from the A1 level. The Center also organizes educational seminars and conferences dedicated to various issues of teaching the Ukrainian language. Lviv University closely cooperates with the non-governmental organization. The philology students were especially interested in interning in such a structure, because its work directly relates to the students’ specialty, and they had the opportunity to apply the knowledge gained during the STEM module in practice.

The internship lasted 4 weeks. The goal of the students’ work was to gain practical experience in the field of public organizations, develop project management and analytical skills, and apply knowledge from the STEM field (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) to solve practical problems of the Center for Ukrainian Studies.

During the internship, the students performed many tasks. Some of them were common, but in most cases the students complemented each other’s work in various aspects. For example, both students had to analyze the organization’s website, collect and analyze data on its activities using STEM tools. This helped the students better understand the directions of the Center’s work and its target audience. Based on the results obtained, the students had to develop materials for the promotion of the Center and its educational services. The task of the first student was to test online platforms to develop new materials for online classes, and the second – to develop interactive (offline) forms of classes in Ukrainian as a foreign language using STEM tools. They also actively participated in the development of STEM initiatives and events of various formats.

At the final meeting with representatives of the organization, the students presented the results of their work. In their presentation, based on the collected data, they proposed ideas for improving the educational programs and projects of the Center for Ukrainian Studies. The students also suggested ways to optimize the collection and analysis of information using STEM tools. After analyzing the requests of the target audience, the students developed a content plan for the Center’s social networks, presented questionnaires and materials for interaction with the offline audience, and proposed new educational formats for the Center’s work. The students’ greatest attention was focused on improving existing materials for teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language, as well as developing new ones using various STEM tools (Mentimeter, Padlet, flash cards, AI, Adobe Aero, Genially etc).

The students demonstrated a high level of knowledge of modern technologies and approaches to organizing the work of the Center, and also showed how the use of STEM technologies and principles will help the public organization improve its work at various levels. The students will be able to apply the internship experience in their professional lives in the future.

The internship experience showed that humanities students can confidently operate in various professional contexts – from legal analytics to educational and cultural projects. By mastering STEM tools, students learn to think systematically, make informed decisions, and work with modern technologies. The “STEM Skills for Humanities Students” program proved that innovative education begins where humanities thinking is combined with a scientific and technological approach.