When describing his role as an IU Student Association freshman intern, Michael Vivier said his job consisted of doing anything from organizing meetings between student organizations to securing a Counseling and Psychological Services counselor to speak at an IUSA event.
Vivier and 20 other freshmen were selected in September to participate in the IUSA freshman internship program this semester.
Vivier worked alongside IUSA Chief of Diversity and Inclusion Rob Sherrell.
The program annually selects students to work with the executive staff for the fall semester.
“I had never been involved in student government in high school or at any other time, and I was a little bit nervous about that coming into this,” Vivier said. “I didn’t know if that would set me back or not, but something I got out of it was that everyone has their strengths and weaknesses and brings something to the table.”
Interns are each paired with one senior staff member with whom they work and shadow. They also participate in a one-credit course during the second eight weeks of the semester, which includes seminars on the systems of the University and how to create a professional presence.
It also asks interns to create a final project proposing an initiative for campus.
In her project, Maggie Hopkins, who interned with IUSA President Anne Tinder, investigated increasing the number of free counseling sessions paid for the student health fee, as well as expanding a program that placed counselors in different schools and departments on campus.
Currently, the program is being piloted within the Jacobs School of Music, with one counselor working specifically in the school, Hopkins said.
Hopkins said she hopes to take her proposal to the Committee for Fee Review, who determines the funding next year. The CFR only meets every other year and will not convene this year. Raising the number of free sessions from two to eight would need increased funds.
Outside of class, Hopkins attended administrative meetings with Tinder and worked on organizing a reunion of former IUSA presidents. Hopkins said the work varies greatly for each intern, since the work is dependent upon the staff member with whom an intern is paired.
“The thing I valued most out of the internship was getting to see the senior staff meetings and how they operated,” Hopkins said. “You get to see all of these very driven individuals do great work individually, but then collectively come together. All of their projects are linked by the values of this administration.”
Vivier worked on organizing a vigil for Yaolin Wang and Joseph Smedley, IU students who died within a few days of each other earlier this semester. He also reached out to the Commission on Multicultural Understanding, a student organization that works on diversity issues on campus.
Elizabeth Niersbach worked as an intern with Jessica Chiang, co-chief of policy for IUSA. Her work focused on meeting with CAPS and researching various initiatives that could be brought to campus.
“The most I learned out of being an intern is that IU has a passion for change and really cares about every student voice,” Niersbach said. “Being an intern has allowed me to see all the inner workings of IUSA and see all the inspiration and passion that comes out of the people who are working for IUSA.”
Niersbach said she plans to continue working for policy in IUSA in the spring.
Though she did say it depends on the upcoming elections, as her projects are not yet finished, and she intends to continue working for IUSA in the future.
She said she plans to work on a campaign, but even if the ticket she campaigns for loses, she might still try to work for the elected administration in some role.
Vivier said he also plans to keep working through this spring, but is uncertain if he will work on IUSA again next fall.
He said he took a chance when applying for the internship, as becoming a part of IUSA was not necessarily part of his plan coming to IU.
Vivier said he hopes to keep the same open-mindedness about joining organizations moving forward and said he encourages other students to step outside their comfort zone when it comes to getting involved.
“I think this internship is one of so many opportunities on campus for students to get involved and more importantly to care,” Vivier said. “There’s 40,000 of us here on campus and there’s never another time in our life where we’re going to be in a situation like we are now. I think this has taught me to really take advantage of that.”
