At some point, college students are faced with the daunting task of deciding what do with their lives. Internships are one way of assuring the workplace doesn't come as a complete shock after graduating from the academic security blanket of the university. \nBut some students shy away from the idea of doing unpaid grunt work they may or may not like.\nNot all internships will have you carting coffee from cubicle to cubicle while the twilight of youth passes you by. Three IU students found internships that showed them exciting parts of the working world they may not have experienced otherwise. Through internships, these students are finding their place in the real world by experiencing it firsthand.
Doing God's Work\nEveryone has had their share of tough bosses and professors. But imagine a job where your higher-up is the pope.\nAn IU student got that experience this summer as an intern for the Holy See Mission to the United Nations in New York City. Sophomore Ryan Funk spent a month attending Economic and Social Council meetings for the Vatican and taking notes on the drafting of resolutions. He spent free time going to plays and watching the Eurocup at the UN's German Embassy.\nThe Vatican ambassador to the UN proposed the internship to Funk while on a trip to New York the previous winter. He said there were a few people his age in the program from Denmark and Holland. His work, however, was mostly with adults.\nFunk said he feels his experience with the UN, what he calls the "definition of a melting pot," will prepare him for his future, though he's not sure what he wants to do with it yet. Seeing how nations interact was a different way of seeing how people interact, he said. \n"It was interesting to see how high-level people worked together -- or didn't work together, in some cases," he said. \nBeing a UN intern gave Funk a front-row seat to the news as it happened. He said the most interesting part of the internship was being a day ahead of the world. \n"I'd read in the newspaper about things I'd seen the day before," he said. "I'd watch something happen, and think, 'I wonder what the papers will say about this.'."
Court of Dreams\nAn internship with the Indiana Pacers is giving sophomore Amanda Piscopo inside experience with sports management. The sports communication broadcast major heard about the opportunity from her Intro to Sports Marketing professor, and started the internship at the beginning of this semester. She drives to Indianapolis three days a week for the 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. job and takes classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Observing the inner workings at the Conseco Fieldhouse has rendered Piscopo enamored with sports marketing. \n"You go to a Pacers game and you sit on the floor, and that's all you see," she said. "But there's so much that goes on behind the scenes."\nAs she considered what she wanted to do as a career, Piscopo said she was confused. \n"The sports majors are so broad," she said. "But after two weeks, I'm positive that this is what I want to do." \nPiscopo said she's excited to work with such a well-respected team. She sees the players when they come to practice at the Fieldhouse three times a week. \n"Working with famous people is always fun," she said.
Practice Makes Perfect\nSenior Everett Stuckey is a veteran intern. After completing two internships this summer, his resume boasts five overall. He worked with Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs in New York City over the summer as an investment banking intern, clocking between 90 and 100 hours a week working with clients and doing comparative company analysis. \nStuckey said he wants to run his own company in the future. He feels the internships have definitely helped him toward that goal and working for two companies at once helped him get different experiences with banking. \nDespite jumping between a college atmosphere one semester and the real world the next, Stuckey said there wasn't much of a culture shock between the two. \n"I've done five internships during the course of college," he said. "What surprises me most is how much the work environment can be similar to the college social environment." \nThe summer wasn't all work for the intern banker. Stuckey attended a fundraiser for then-senatorial candidate Barack Obama where he met Vernon Jordan, senior advisor to President Clinton. The intern also saw his share of Big Apple shops and clubs. One night, he ran into Macaulay Culkin at the New York City bar, Bar None. \n"I have lots of interesting stories from the summer," he said. "None of the good ones should be published in the IDS." \n--Contact Staff Writer Annie Tasker at atasker@indiana.edu.
