Francis Brunet ’16 worked as a legislative Aide in the Senate President’s Office

This summer I worked in the Senate President’s Office at the 31st Legislature of the Virgin Islands where I performed various office tasks as needed and helped to oversee and organize the inflows of information, managed daily office operations, which included the management of constituent and inter-office correspondence, as well as serving as liaison between the various offices. I worked directly for the Senate President, Neville James, to conduct research on issues pertaining to his participation on various committees in advance of weekly hearings.

The most challenging part of my experience was just getting accustomed to an office environment where expectations are high and your input matters. As you get older, the focus of your internship experiences become much more concerned with understanding how you would fit as a part of an office team. I was fortunate enough to be the only intern in my office – and one of two staffers on St. Thomas – therefore, I was able to spend a lot of time on the senate floor and get a firsthand look at the many issues facing the Virgin Islands today. I not only learned a lot about the issues at hand, but I also learned a lot about what it takes to someday be in a position to deliberate serious judicial issues.

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Federico Elizondo ’17 researched xenophobia in Cape Town, South Africa.

Ubuntu—the word I never knew I knew.

With the help of my Colgate professors, Mark Stern (Educational Studies) and Ryan Solomon (CORE South Africa/ Writing and Rhetoric), and Career Services’ Summer Funding, I was able to intern at Africa Unite. Quite succinctly, Africa Unite is a Non-Governmental Organization in Cape Town, South Africa with the mission of promoting human rights and social cohesion—especially amongst the youth. Without the options and financing that Colgate University provided, I would not have had the opportunity to gain professional skills as well as career insights on social work.

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Emily Derozier ’17 learned about architecture in Prague, Czech Republic.

My internship was with an international architectural design firm in Prague, Czech Republic, where I was taught advanced skills in Photoshop and AutoCad that allowed me to help redesign the PRG International Airport and construct a future Olympic-sized stadium for the Czech Republic. My internship also gave me the opportunity to participate in research with highly esteemed architecture professors and allowed two of my papers to be published in international architecture magazines. My internship in Prague this past summer was my first time traveling outside of the United States. Becoming an architect has always been my dream and Prague was the best possible city in the world for me to gain the necessary experience. Prague showcases a myriad of architectural styles, such as romanesque, gothic, renaissance, baroque, and cubism, coexisting side by side in the compact capital. The city is truly a pleasure for all–historians, tourists, and especially students of architecture. Prague is literally a textbook of styles throughout the centuries. Because I had very little experience with the Czech language, my translation guide was basically like my Bible. After forgetting my backpack (with my maps and translation guide) on the tram, I discovered, to my horror, that I was in the middle of the Czech capitol without any direction. But, as it turns out, Prague is the one city it is actually enjoyable to be lost in.

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Elliot Voss ’17 gained crucial knowledge about the wind and solar sector

I worked for the renewable energy independent power producer (IPP) sPower. They are a new company that was founded in 2012, located in Salt Lake City, Utah. Essentially, sPower either through origination or acquisition, operates and sells wind/solar power to utility companies (like Southern California Edison). I was the first “un-paid” intern ever at sPower, so my experience was quite unique, but everybody there welcomed me with open arms and had lots for me to do. I worked with business development/project management to oversee both potential and operating energy projects (sPower has over 150 operating projects). Some of my various tasks included conducting “due diligence” as part of the acquisition process, finding the “right” numbers for the finance team so they could input them into their financial models, and assisting the accounting team with filing paperwork/documents into the appropriate dropbox files. It was a great experience because I got to participate in several different divisions of the company giving me a broad overview of how/what the company does.

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Eric Foote ’16 researched the history of energy in Santa Barbara, CA.

The compiling effects of carbon dioxide and other pollutants in the atmosphere is the most severe threat facing our planet today. When I began to consider consensus predictions of energy consumption by source around the world in the next 30 years, I realized how urgent it is for businesses and policy leaders to do everything they can to accelerate the shift to renewable energy sources now.

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Emma Walsch ’17 worked with Contemporary Art in Boston.

I had a wonderful experience as one of five interns within the Contemporary Art Department at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Within the Contemporary Art Department, there are multiple curators preparing collections for certain exhibits and researching potential acquisitions for both permanent and temporary galleries within the museum. During my time at the Museum, I have taken on a slew of projects. I was in charge of putting together and editing the Summer Newsletter for the Contemporary Art Department and the Visiting Committee, I helped prepare for the Museum’s annual audit, responded to information requests by scholars/members on certain objects and exhibits, compiled an archive for an artist’s exhibition once it ended at the museum, created new object files of recently-acquired works, and developed research reports as my long-term summer intern project for three different artists’ pieces that had been recently acquired.

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Elizabeth Souter ’16 researched neuroimmmunology/MS in Denver, Colorado.

I worked as a student intern in the Neuroimmunology/MS subdivision of the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus. On my first day, I was given the chance to oversee the data management from a three-year clinical trial. This was definitely trial by fire, as I had never done anything similar. A week later, I had a meeting with the head of Neuroimmunology/MS to present my work. The meeting, thankfully, went well and I continued my work on the project. This experience showed me how much I’ve learned from all of my late-night study sessions. I was able to anticipate what information would be asked for and not be caught off-guard even though I had almost no idea what I was doing!

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Eli Brick ’17 mentored boys and girls in South Africa.

My name is Eli Brick, I am a geography major in the class of 2017. My internship was with an education nonprofit organization called Bright Start located in Hout Bay, Western Cape, South Africa. As a Bright Start intern, I was primarily responsible for the management of the organization’s community workshop program, daily mentorship activities with the Bright Start students (boys and girls ages 4-13), and the management of various social media platforms. One of the highlights of my experience was the designing and implementation of a community workshop covering parenting topics for parents of children in Hout Bay’s informal settlements, Hangberg and Imizamo Yethu. I was responsible for coordinating workshop facilitators, nailing down a workshop location, and determining workshop topics based on prior feedback from the community members. After having spent several weeks getting to know the children from these two communities who were involved in the Bright Start program, it was amazing to meet some of the parents and see them come out to discuss parenting strategies to enrich both their own experiences and those of their children.

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Denise Elliot ’16 worked with many students from low-income households in Queens.

This summer I worked as an intern at Legal Outreach’s Summer Law Institute, which prepares rising eighth graders from low-income households for the rigors of high school. Upon completing the Summer Law Institute, students have the opportunity to apply to Legal Outreach’s College Bound program which will further prepare students for college. The most exciting moment of my internship was working with my 21 students to perform in a mock trial competition. Prior to the mock trial competition, I was able to work with all of my students to develop their individual strengths and improve upon their shortcomings. Through this process I was able to have a personal impact on students who I did not think I would be able to inspire. I can honestly say that I have made 21 amazing new friends and I am excited to keep in touch with them as they grow up!

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David Kim ’16 researched neurovascular interactions in Washington D.C.

This summer, I was provided with the extraordinary opportunity to conduct biomedical research at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, MD. I worked under Professor Mukoyama’s Laboratory of Stem Cell and Vascular Biology in order to understand the neurovascular alignment in obese conditions along with embryonic pericyte development.

The Laboratory of Stem Cell and Vascular Biology focuses on understand the neuro-vascular interactions during embryonic development and in disease conditions. Many of the projects that are being completed focus on imaging techniques, where the researchers try to observe the alignment between nerves and blood vessels along with chemical signals that foster such interactions.

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