Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

COLUMN: Beat the heat with a cool summer internship
By Morgan Schneider & Jack Hittinger
The Collegian (Hillsdale College)
05/08/2006

(U-WIRE) HILLSDALE, Mich. — 1. Get an internship

There is some truth in the statement that once you graduate college, your GPA does not matter anymore, the experience does. Naturally, the only way to acquire this for freshman Chandler Baer was to land an internship with the Americans United For Life, a pro-life think tank based in downtown Chicago.

"They focus on legislative stuff, like getting people elected," Baer said. "You know, a lot of undercover stuff."

Baer acquired the spot through connections, saying her father's philanthropy often works with Americans United For Life. She is going to be doing mainly research over the course of her eight week internship.

"I'm the only undergrad intern," Baer said. "The others are all law school interns so they'll all be a lot smarter than me."

2. Get an internship ... with a friend

Naturally, if the idea of interning by yourself sounds a little daunting, the next best option is to grab the nearest friend and bring them along with you.

Senior Jessi Cole and junior Michelle Long are doing just that as they head to Boston's North Shore Music Theater for the summer.

"It's the largest regional theater on the East Coast," Cole said. "When a lot of the Broadway hits get finally released, they'll go there first."

Cole first worked for the company last summer as a wardrobe intern. This year, she is working as the costume shop intern, and Long is the electrics intern.

Long applied to several other theater companies but knew right away that North Shore was the place for her.

"I decided before I even got in with this theater that if they offered me a position I was going to take it," Long said. "That way I could spend my summer with Jessi."

The productions lined up for this summer that they will be working on include Ain't Misbehavin,'Singin' in the Rain and Cinderella: Part Two. They added the "Part Two" onto the repeat production after the theater burned down during the production of Cinderella last summer.

"There was a huge fire on opening night and they don't know how it happened," Cole said. "It destroyed everything; they had to rebuild the theater. So they're redoing Cinderella."

3. Not interning? Get a cool job and write a book on it

Sophomore Loren Wilbers is killing two birds with the proverbial stone this summer as she combines her summer job as a carnival worker a.k.a. "carnie" with research for a thesis, which she hopes to turn into a book.

"I'm a sociology major, so we read a lot about different types of cultures and people," Wilbers said. "Carnies are definitely their own breed."

Wilbers is going to travel the state of Iowa for two months, collecting notes and stories as she goes.

"You could work for two days and write a book about carnies," Wilbers said. "You wouldn't believe the stuff that goes on."

Wilbers even gets to operate her own booth at the carnival - the All Star game, where you throw a football through a hole to win a football with your favorite team logo on it.

"If you pay $5 and make it through twice, you can pick a blanket with your favorite team on it," Wilbers added. "But don't count on getting any Packers blankets - we always run out."

And did she have any ideas on book titles?

"My father made a joke that it should be called Memoirs of a Carnie," Wilbers said. "But it's not going to be that. It could be Gypsies of the Midwest, but I really have no idea."

4. Join a bevy of interns in D.C.

Of all the settings where you could take an internship, why not our nation's capitol?

Elisabeth Fitch, from Boise, Idaho, will be working in the office of Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID). Her main duties will be writing constituent letters and doing research for legislation passing through the Senate.

"I expect to learn a lot about policy issues," Fitch said, "especially in attending committee and sub-committee meetings."

An American Studies major, Fitch said that she thinks her work in Washington will help her learn a lot about her major.

Her main interest is in immigration policy, and after working for an immigration lawyer last summer she said that she wants to learn more.

"I'm really excited to be in Washington D.C. at a time when immigration is a front-running issue."

Also interning in Washington, D.C. is Joy Miller, who will be interning for the United States Department of Homeland Security.

Miller got the job when Career Planning sent out an email with an application. She filled it out, not thinking she would get it, but she did.

"I'm looking foreword to the experience," said Miller. "It [politics] might be something I want to do after graduate or law school."

Despite her excitement, Miller, a history major, says she is still in the dark about what her actual duties will consist of.

"They haven't told me anything," she said. "All I know is that it's a paid internship at the Homeland Security office."

To finalize the job, Miller had to pass a security clearence. The 30-page form that she filled out is the lowest you can get.

Miller plans on living in the city for the summer at George Washington University, where she stayed last summer.

5. Or, just take a trip to an exotic locale.

Freshman Michelle French is setting aside 10 days of her summer to travel halfway across the globe to Swaziland, a small country surrounded by South Africa on three sides.

"It's a mission trip," French said. "I'm going with a group of 10 people from my church."

The purpose of the trip is to work in orphanages and help educate the population about AIDS and AIDS prevention.

"Swaziland has the highest percentage of AIDS-afflicted citizens in the entire continent," French said. "It's slightly scary."

In addition to having a high AIDS infected population, Swaziland is also one of the few countries left in the world with a pure monarchy in place.

"Spreading democratic capitalism, taking down the king - that's not why we're going," French said. "At least, starting a revolution is not why I'm going."

[ Back to Student Voices ]