Meet Our Majors
Internship Experiences
Jaime Amrhein, Class of 2009
I had an internship at the Center for Public Integrity in DC this summer [2008]. CPI is an investigative journalism non-profit that produces long-form investigative pieces. I was an editorial intern on their quadrennial project, The Buying of the President, about money in the 2008 election. I wrote and researched for articles published online and to be published in a book coming out in January. The topics of these articles ranged from "The Buying of Ambassadorships" to profiles of campaign advisers. Many of these articles often incorporated some history as well.
Pat Gartland, Class of 2009
I worked [in summer 2008] in the Curatorial Department of the Battleship New Jersey in Camden, New Jersey. The Battleship New Jersey is a retired WWII battleship that is now a floating museum in the Delaware River. I split my time working there between two different projects: the first project involved helping the museum curators categorize and reorganize the battleship's collection of naval and World War II artifacts. The second project involved working with the battleship's oral history project. In this project, I helped set up sound, lighting, and recording equipment and interviewed naval veterans that visited the ship. For both of these projects, I was in charge of converting the audio/video and collection information into their new computer system. I found the job by simply calling the museums in my hometown area. There are many smaller museums that can always use an extra hand. Overall it was the perfect summer internship, and I am considering working there while in graduate school.
Katie Geisler, Class of 2009
I began my summer [2008] as a volunteer helping the archivist at my local diocese in Florida because I had not had any luck finding an internship in my field of interest. Through word of mouth, however, I had the luck of hearing that The Florida Catholic, the newspaper serving the state of Florida, needed an intern to overhaul their archives. I simply fell into this opportunity by being in the right place at the right time and being open to any jobs that came my way. During my time with The Florida Catholic, I reorganized the archives for the newspaper that went back to 1938. I implemented a new system for filing all of the articles, pictures, documents, and other various publications from the six dioceses in the state of Florida that the newspaper had collected during its 70 years in existence. This internship gave me wonderful hands-on experience in a completely independent environment that helped me to narrow down my own ideas for a career after graduation.
James Hrdlicka, Class of 2010
I spent the entire summer as an intern at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park in Fredericksburg, Virginia. My duties consisted of working at the visitors' center for the Fredericksburg battlefield and also at a nearby historic house called Chatham. The most interesting part of the internship was developing and conducting my own tour about the Battle of Fredericksburg. The Park provides housing and a small stipend to offset expenses, and there were about ten other interns or seasonal employees my age working during the summer. I had a great time and I definitely recommend an internship with the National Park Service.
James Lypen, Class of 2009
My internship this past semester [2008] was at the American Enterprise Institute. I worked in the public affairs department and prepared a media study for the Vice President, David Gerson. More specifically, I researched the 2008 Q1 publications of AEI scholars and their major competitors (about a dozen in all) in order to compare how many op-eds each organization has published in the "Big Three" newspapers (WSJ, NYT, WP). That was my main long-term project, but with it came many perks, including: having the ability to attend dozens of conferences, seminars, etc. in all policy areas; guest speakers and lecturers including Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Senator Richard Lugar, Bill Thomas, etc.; trips to the Capitol Building (the day after the famous Republican revolt), the Pentagon, and the State Department. A great experience overall.
Laura Srebro, Class of 2009
I was an intern [in the summer of 2008] in the development department of Towers Productions. Towers is a Chicago based, award winning television production company that specializes in non-fiction programming for networks like the History Channel, The National Geographic Channel, The Travel Channel, and Discovery. As the development intern I worked closely with the development team in generating ideas for new shows, conducting research, and building relationship with experts in the field including New York Times best-selling authors and NASA scientists. For more information about Towers check out www.towersproductions.com.
Laura Yamartino, Class of 2009
I worked [in summer 2008] at Plimoth Plantation, a bicultural living history museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It features "interpreters" in a 1627 English Village, the Native Wampanoag homesite, and a full-scale replica of the Mayflower on the Plymouth Waterfront. I worked in the public relations department writing press releases, doing research, and meeting with media representatives, but there are many different departments that students can apply for including museum education, the curatorial department, colonial wardrobe, etc. More information on these internships can be found at http://plimoth.org/volunteer/internship-opportunities.php or by contacting Denise Nichols, the Volunteer and Intern Director at dnichols@plimoth.org.
The internships are unpaid but if you are not from the area they provide free housing at the "Intern House". There are after-hours opportunities for paid positions at the museum as well. I felt it was a great opportunity to get an intimate look at the inner workings of a world-class institution (the museum has a small administrative staff but attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year).