Sofia Estay ’16 interned in the Latin American department of Sotheby’s.
This summer, I am interning in the Latin American Art department at Sotheby’s in New York City. Sotheby’s is a global art business and a leader in the secondary art market. Beginning as an auction house in 1744, today Sotheby’s offers private sale galleries, worldwide selling exhibitions, financing, and art education.
Seamus Crowley ’18 studied communication and decision making skills.
I participated in a program called MiddCORE this past summer. MiddCORE is a month-long educational program run by Middlebury College and hosted by Sierra Nevada College in Incline Village, NV within walking distance to Lake Tahoe. Throughout the month I completed 160+ hours of mentor-driven workshops designed to strengthen skills in leadership, collaboration, strategic thinking, persuasive communication, financial literacy, negotiation, ethical decision-making, crisis management, and entrepreneurship. The most exciting moment of the month for me was a consulting project I worked on with a group for Peet’s Coffee & Tea. We spent a week preparing a deliverable on how the company could market coffee to millennials more successfully, and finally at the end of the week we had the opportunity to present our ideas to the CEO of the company. It was incredibly exciting to be solving a real-world problem and knowing that your ideas could end up being implemented across the nation. Having such a large responsibility for an amazing opportunity made the process very rewarding.
Sally Langan ’17 worked with children from at-risk neighborhoods in Boston.
I spent my summer working at Camp Harbor View as a group leader. CHV is a summer camp on Long Island in the Boston Harbor that offers 900 children from Boston’s at-risk neighborhoods the opportunity to have a true summer camp experience and participate in a four-week summer camp program. My friend Kiyanna and I started a Creative Writing Club, and had two campers sign up. One was Kayla, an 11-year-old girl who had a passion for poetry and self-reflection. She didn’t love everything about being at camp, especially the outdoor activities, but said club time was her favorite hour of the day. We began writing each other letters, and she opened up to me about her family life and how she struggles in school and with making friends. She wrote about the labels society puts on her as a woman of color. On the last day of camp, she wrote me a letter of advice, and at the end it said, “when there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.” We hugged and tears streamed down her face. She had recently lost a family member and felt I was the only person she could honestly talk to, and she was thankful for our time together. I realized that working with young children is one way to make a real difference in one’s community. I am proud to say that during my time at CHV, I was able to influence my camper Kayla, and she was able to leave me with advice I will hold close forever.
Taylor Fischer ’16 advocated for a Smoke-Free Texas in Austin.
This summer I worked for the American Heart Association as an advocacy intern in Austin, Texas. At the American Heart Association, we are essentially in the business of putting ourselves out of business. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in America and the AHA works to eliminate heart disease as well as provide Americans with the knowledge and tools to live longer, healthier lives. As an advocacy intern, I worked mainly on Smoke-Free Texas, an ordinance that would ban smoking in restaurants and bars. This mandate would drastically improve the lives and health of Texans and ultimately decrease the amount of heart disease within the state. I think one of the most memorable parts of my summer was when I was able to meet some of the volunteers who had been working with us to make Waco Smoke-Free. It was amazing to hear their stories as to why they were fighting for this ordinance with us and how thankful they were for all of the work that we do at the AHA. It made me feel incredible knowing that even though I am just a small part of this organization, my work is meaningful in helping improve the lives of others. As a lobbyist for an organization like the American Heart Association it is your job to create positive change within the government, which ultimately creates positive change within the lives of American citizens. Hearing firsthand how much the work of the American Heart Association advocacy team has helped to improve the lives of so many families instantly showed me that this is something I want to do. I am so thankful that I was given the opportunity to be a part of such an amazing group of people and I hope to continue the work of the American Heart Association!
Taylor Ellerkamp ’17 interned at a local county prosecutor’s office in Ohio.
This summer I had the opportunity to intern at the county prosecutor’s office in my hometown of Marion, Ohio. My main responsibility was reviewing case files for upcoming trials. I read over police reports and witness statements, took notes, and filled in one of the assistant prosecutors on the most important details of the case. I was also able to attend hearings and trials as an observer on a regular basis. I was able to learn about the various responsibilities of a prosecutor. In addition to one jury trial, I sat in on many custody and child support hearings. As a result, I had the unique opportunity to learn about the inner workings of the legal system in my county from beginning to end.
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Tanner Holley ’16 interned at a non-profit theater company.
This summer has been a learning experience in a multitude of ways, and I definitely enjoyed every minute of it. For the last three months, I have been interning at Ping Chong + Company, a small non-profit theater company that specializes in creating pieces of work that help tell the stories of those without a voice (i.e. being black in America, or growing up Muslim in a post-9/11 America). The most exciting thing I did as an intern for PCC was probably sitting in on and helping out with rehearsals for an upcoming show PCC is creating entitled “The Alaska Project.” As both an actor and an artist, it was interesting to learn about the company’s creative process and what all goes in to making a show–everything from grant applications to making a puppet out of rope and tape! All in all, I had a wonderful time interning at PCC and living on my own in New York and I wouldn’t trade a minute of it!
Taylor Mooney ’17 learns about Visual Production in Baltimore.
This summer, I worked in the Visual Productions department at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland. The National Aquarium is a non-profit public aquarium that provides an opportunity to connect with the life that lives underwater, both in the oceans and the local harbors. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first accepted the position, but not even six hours after I arrived in Baltimore I realized that I was going to have an incredible experience. The night before my first day I received an email that said I would be helping to film sea turtles the Aquarium was rehabilitating the morning of the first day, and soon after that I was told I’d be going on a four day trip to Delaware to help film an educational camp the Aquarium provided to inner-city kids. Later, I helped to take photographs at a turtle surgery–I didn’t even know those happened. This isn’t even including all of the experience I gained with filming equipment and editing software. I had no idea how accommodating and incredibly helpful my mentors would be. My mentors hadn’t met me yet and I was already being offered these mind-blowing opportunities. This internship was invaluable to me, and initially, I wasn’t even going to apply. I didn’t feel like I had enough experience, nor was I completely comfortable living in an unfamiliar city. So, one of the most important things I learned was to just take a risk–maybe you’ll get a turtle surgery out of it.
Victoria Hymel ’16 researched animal behavior in South Africa.
This summer, I was lucky enough to spend three weeks as a research volunteer on African Impact’s South African wildlife research and conservation project. Since I eventually want to conduct my own animal behavior research with African mammals, this experience was the perfect lead-in to this kind of career. One of my most memorable days on the project was a conservation morning. On these days, we would spend a few hours doing physical work to improve the game reserve. This particular day was only my second one on the project, so I was still learning a lot. We were doing bush clearing, which basically meant removing thorny plants from the road with machetes. Never in my life have I wielded such a weapon, so that in itself was an experience. After about an hour and half, we were all very sweaty and sore. The drivers were moving the cars up when we heard a branch snap a few hundred meters to our left. After craning our necks, we finally saw that it was one of the reserve’s Southern white rhinos! It was one thing to see these impressive animals from the cars, but since we were all on foot with nothing but our machetes, it was both exhilarating and terrifying. We had to immediately get in the game drivers, but it was a moment I will never forget.
Victoria Tarantino ’16 combined her love of fashion and women’s studies at Prada in NYC.
During my time at Prada, I worked underneath the Public Relations Managers and Assistants of the men and women’s collections. My main responsibilities included collecting both digital and print press clippings of any mentions of Prada or its brands (Miu Miu, Chuch’s and Carshoe). I was also responsible for taking inventories of samples, pulling samples for sendouts, delivering samples for photoshoots, trafficking magazines to employees, and updating the expected credit reports, which I had predicted in my proposal. I would constantly ask for new projects and offer my help in any way possible because I wanted to learn as much as I could about both fashion PR and Prada.
Xi Chun ’16 explored the Investment Banking Sector in New York City.
The biggest challenge for me is to have a shift in mindset that leads to the realization of the importance of the responsibilities I was given. Coming straight from school, it’s easy to think every task that I was assigned is a practice. However, in real life, all that matters is the delivery of results. There are times that the tasks that I was assigned seemed so insignificant that I didn’t take time to consider their seriousness, which led to missed deadlines, and as a result of that, I wasn’t given any more tasks for an entire week. Later, I was told by my associate that in investment banking, attention to detail and ability to meet deadlines are the two most important traits of any successful analysts, since a small error in a number will raise a red flag for investors and a missing deadline might lose a client. She said, “Welcome to the real world.”
