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Jun. 21, 2009 – When Amanda Shettlesworth sent the School of Public and Environment Affairs’ students a mass e-mail two years ago describing a competitive internship opportunity, she got an unlikely reply – from a student’s mother. “She called me up and asked that her son be given a leg up in the process,” Shettlesworth said.
In what’s been called the age of the “helicopter parents” – those who hover over their children’s lives – school officials say parents are becoming increasingly involved in their children’s career searches, doing everything from writing students’ resumes to accompanying them at career fairs.
Some degrees defy convention. One student majors in comedy writing, while others pursue offbeat topics such as violin making or concert and festival production. A few years ago, a student created a major in beer. He studied entrepreneurial brewing in hopes of eventually opening his own microbrewery. Those zany degrees attract attention, but they’re just as tough as any other on campus.
When Amanda Shettlesworth sent the School of Public and Environment Affairs’ students a mass e-mail two years ago describing a competitive internship opportunity, she got an unlikely reply – from a student’s mother.
Jordan Goldklang spent much of his childhood mesmerizing friends and family with tricks and optical illusions. In middle school, he’d grab a deck of cards or a fistful of coins and spellbind his classmates whenever he got the chance. Teachers begged him to stop, saying the magic was disruptive. They confiscated his cards, told him to put the coins away and even called his parents pleading for help, but nothing worked. School was the ultimate testing ground for his tricks, he said, a place where he could both perfect his art and connect with his peers. When he arrived at IU four years ago, he thought he’d have to give up his beloved hobby to study “something serious.” But in an ironic twist, the 22-year-old just graduated with a degree in magic, after taking a range of classes to both hone his performance skills and develop an understanding of the psychology behind the age-old craft.
Experts say a growing number of seniors are turning to internships to fill the gap between graduation and permanent employment.
As chain restaurants continue to pour in and local independents leave, longtime residents wonder if Kirkwood will ever be the same again
Students chart their courses, define their degrees with abstract academics.
When Amanda Shettlesworth sent the School of Public and Environment Affairs’ students a mass e-mail last year describing a competitive internship opportunity, she got an unlikely reply – from a student’s mother. “She called me up and asked that her son be given a leg up in the process,” Shettlesworth said. Confused by the mother’s involvement, Shettlesworth, an assistant director in SPEA’s career services office, said she couldn’t do anything to help. “This is your son’s responsibility,” she told the mother, “and hopefully he will write the essay well and apply.” But the mother fought back, arguing that the school should help him get ahead. “It’s almost like she didn’t hear me at all,” Shettlesworth said. Some say her situation underscores a growing trend across the country.
You’ve just finished a wild night of drinking, and you’re starting to feel it. But can greasy pizzas and hot breadsticks, or any food for that matter, cure those hangover blues?
A decision by IU Athletics officials to begin charging club sports teams to use athletic facilities ignited controversy last month. But the real problem, club members now say, is a continued lack of field space that forces them to use varsity facilities.\nRecreational Sports officials said some fields are so worn that they are hardly usable. One field was described as a “dust bowl,” while others need millions of dollars in repairs. But a proposed plan to fix the problem could be pushed to the back burner to give way to other University construction projects. \n“The bigger issue is that Club Sports and Recreational Sports have to go to Athletics for facilities in the first place,” said April Scheuerell, president of the Club Sports Federation, the governing body of IU’s 46 club teams. “The problem that Club Sports is having really extends to the entire campus because of the overall inadequacy of our facilities at this point in time.”\nField sports, including the club men’s and women’s lacrosse, rugby, ultimate frisbee and co-ed baseball and field hockey teams have few options when it comes to practice space. \nDuring the spring and fall seasons, those teams have access to three outdoor facilities: Woodlawn Field, Evan Williams Club Sport Field and North Fee Lane Fields. In the winter months, though, no large, indoor recreational space can accommodate them. \nWith no other large, multi-purpose indoor space, teams have little choice but to use the varsity facilities at John Mellencamp Pavilion during the winter months.\nThat’s now an issue, because IU Athletics announced Jan. 9 that, for the first time, club programs would have to pay $500 per week to use the space between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. Monday-Thursday.\n“There’s no problem with varsity being separate and athletics being separate,” Scheuerell said, “but we should have our own (space) to make it separate. It shouldn’t be that they have (space) and we don’t have anything.”
Redstorm, the IU women’s club rugby team, had a season of firsts. \nIt moved to Division I this year, defeating every opponent in an attention-grabbing 11-0 season. They’re headed to New Mexico in April for the national women’s rugby playoffs – the first time the club has made it that far. \nAnd last week, the IU Athletics department delivered another first. The department said Redstorm, along with the rest of IU’s club sports teams, will now have to pay to use varsity practice facilities, including John Mellencamp Pavilion. Previously, athletics offered Club Sports this space free of charge.\nBut now, Club Sports will likely have to pay $500 per week so eight teams can practice at the Mellencamp Pavilion between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday, said Stacey L. Hall, \nprogram director for intramural sports, club sports and student development.\n“There’s so little time for us to digest this,” said April Scheuerell, president of the Club Sports Federation and a Redstorm rugby player. “We’d just like to have our questions answered to find out why this happening and where this is going to go.”\nJ.D. Campbell, IU Athletics director of media relations, said athletics officials were not available for interviews Tuesday. He said the department is discussing the issue internally and did not have any additional comment at this time. \nThe Club Sports Federation, the governing body of the 46 club sports teams, said it will use an emergency fund to pay for the fees this year. But clubs are now scratching their heads, wondering how they will afford the fees on their own next year, without the emergency funds. \n“I could easily see us spending more time per week raising money than practicing,” said Scheuerell. \nClubs receive some money from IU, but get most of their funding from member dues and fundraisers. \nAndrea Gitelson, the women’s lacrosse club coach and adviser, said teams already raise money to pay for everything from jerseys to tournament fees, busses, hotels rooms and equipment. \nThe cost of practice space would add yet another financial burden to the team, she said, stressing club athletes who join the club largely to escape the demands of college life. \n “A lot of these players, they basically use this as an outlet for them,” she said. “It’s a social outlet, it’s a stress-relieving outlet. They’re doing something they love, they’re choosing to participate, they’re paying to participate.” \nLaura Jones, the president and captain of the women’s ultimate club frisbee team, said her team has started talking with club members about new fundraisers for next year. \nBut she said she’s upset by athletics’ decision because her team already has a working relationship with them. \nUltimate frisbee team members sell parking tickets before IU men’s basketball games, and athletics pays them about $150 to $200 per game.\n“We’re the people standing outside in the cold selling tickets,” Jones said. “We help them out, we help their sports, we go to their games. For them to charge us, we feel it’s just turning their back on us.”
Club sports athletes and officials got a surprise when the IU Athletics Department announced Wednesday it will immediately begin charging club teams to use varsity facilities. \nThe decision has infuriated many club sports athletes who said they should have been given more notice about the decision. Club leaders have suspected for months the athletics department would implement a fee, so the Club Sports Federation quickly decided to tap into its emergency fund to help offset these unexpected fees. \n“Having to pay for practice space would wipe out these clubs,” said April Scheuerell, president of the Club Sports Federation, the governing body of the 46 IU club teams. “As student groups, we should be able to use University facilities.”\nAthletics department officials did not respond to repeated interview requests on Friday and Monday.\nExact details of the decision remain unclear, but club sports will now likely have to pay $500 a week so eight teams can practice at the John Mellencamp Pavilion between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday, said Stacey L. Hall, program director for intramural sports, club sports and student development. The teams include men’s and women’s lacrosse, rugby, ultimate frisbee and co-ed baseball and field hockey, she said. Traditionally, IU Athletics offered this space free of charge for club sports. \nOfficials first learned of the decision Wednesday evening when they received a phone call from the athletics office, Hall said. She said club sports officials have not seen any written documents outlining the fee, but confirmed in an e-mail Monday afternoon that she is “almost positive” a $500 per week fee will be implemented. Many questions regarding the new fees remain, club sports officials said, and it is not yet clear when the questions will be answered. \nKathy Bayless, director of campus recreational sports, said club sports first learned of a possible athletics facility fee in October. At that point, though, she said she did not think the fees would be implemented anytime soon. \n“It was our understanding that fees, if they were enforced at all, wouldn’t take effect until next year,” she said. “The surprise in this is that the conversation moved from concept to execution unexpectedly and without written information, without time to equip\nthe clubs.”\nIndeed, the timing of the decision – giving the clubs less than a week to respond – has been the source of the greatest frustration, Scheuerell said. \nClubs operate on razor-thin budgets, Hall said, and don’t have enough money to pay a portion of the $500 fee. \nThe clubs receive some of their money from the University, but raise most of it through fund raising or members’ dues. \n“It’s such an unforeseen thing,” Hall said. “To incur a brand new expense at this level is really hard to do this year.”\nYet clubs have few other \noptions. \nThey can’t practice outside because outdoor fields don’t reopen until after mid-March. And they can’t move to other indoor facilities, such as the Student Recreational Sports Center or gyms at the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, because those spaces are constantly occupied. Heavy lacrosse balls and ultimate frisbee discs could also damage the gyms because they weren’t designed for those sports, Hall said.\n“It’s not like you can go rent space from a high school or anywhere else,” she said. \nThe Club Sports Federation decided to use its emergency fund to pay the $500 a week fee, or about $4,000 total, to keep the teams at Mellencamp Pavilion through March 6. \nScheuerell, who is a member of the women’s rugby team, said the cost also stings because club teams will be using the Mellencamp Pavilion when it would normally sit empty. \nOther club athletes agree.\nOwen Dickey, president of the men’s rugby club, said he’s upset by the decision because club sports practices don’t disrupt the athletics department. \n“I think it’s outrageous,” he said. “We’re not getting in their way.” \nClub teams first started using the Mellencamp Pavilion in the spring of 2006, Hall said. Prior to that time, a variety of clubs practiced in Harry Gladstein Fieldhouse, where they often had longer practice hours. But when the fieldhouse got a new track in 2006, athletics moved club sports to the Mellencamp facility, which could accommodate team sports like lacrosse and rugby. \nBayless said she knows space on campus is an issue, and she understands it costs money to operate facilities, even late at night. \n“This is about timing,” she said, “and hoping that the fees, if executed, are truly done in the most reasonable fashion so that we can make it as economical as we can and yet the athletic department addresses the real cost that they face.”
Daniel Orr made a name for himself serving haute cuisine at one of New York City’s top restaurants. But, in his latest venture, he’s heading back to the farm.\nThe Columbus, Ind., native will officially open FARMbloomington on Saturday in the historic Oddfellows Building at 108 E. Kirkwood Ave. \nThe highly-anticipated new restaurant will serve what Orr calls “real food” – food that is local, seasonal and simple, while still original. \n“Being a great chef is 90 percent being a good shopper and 10 percent not screwing up what you bought,” Orr said. “I think that’s kind of what ‘real food’ is. Going out and meeting the farmers ... seeing how the whole thing comes together and having enough respect for the ingredients to not overdo it.” \nIn the main restaurant, Orr will serve lunch and dinner Tuesday through Saturday, offering specialties such as sorghum-glazed pork chops, local Indiana elk loin and roasted tandoori salmon. Prices range from $4 for appetizers to around $30 for the most expensive entrée. \nThe restaurant also includes a café and retail store, called FARMmarket, a bar called FARMbar and a basement music venue called the Root Cellar. \nThe goal, Orr said, is to create a restaurant that will appeal to all types of people, with a variety of tastes and budgets. \nAt the café-style FARMmarket in the front of the restaurant, diners can grab baked goods, coffee and specialty drinks throughout the day, in addition to sandwiches, soups and salads for lunch. A retail store will offer wreathes, potpourri, crafts and Orr’s own sauces and spice blends. \n“It’s kind of like Cracker Barrel by Martha Stewart,” Orr said. \nFARMbar, open seven days a week, serves wood-oven, whole-grain pizzas and tapas, or small appetizers. \nThe Root Cellar, still under construction, should open in mid-February, Orr said. It will be open Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights with blues and bluegrass music from local and national musicians. \nOrr said he’s going to decorate the walls of the Root Cellar with 50-year-old license plates, an antique beer can collection, funky couches and other items to give it a lived-in look.\n“It’s going to look like a funky old blues bar,” he said. “I want it to look like it’s been here forever.” \nThat sentiment applies to the main restaurant space, too.\nOrr started renovating the building in June, and outfitted it with worn wooden floors, quilts with pictures of his family and plenty of old farm products, including rusted saws and plows from his family farm. \nA silo-shaped chefs table overlooking the kitchen even features a chandelier crafted out of a wooden chicken carrier. \n“I’m the grandchild of the original owner and I’ve come back to the family to turn the general store into a restaurant,” he said. “That’s kind of the picture I had in my mind.” \nScott Hutcheson, the author of the forthcoming book “Home Grown Indiana: A Food Lover’s Guide to Good Eating in the Hoosier State,” said the restaurant is generating plenty of buzz, largely due to Orr’s reputation.\n“I’m hearing lots of great things about the place,” he said. “I think he’s definitely there on the forefront of trying to incorporate the best of what we grow and produce in Indiana into his menu.” \nOrr graduated from culinary school at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., and later trained for two years at some of the top restaurants in France and Belgium. \nIn 1992, he took a job at New York City’s La Grenouille, a famous French restaurant that recently celebrated its 45-year anniversary. He later became executive chef of the restaurant and in 1997, he earned a coveted three-star review from Ruth Reichl, the New York Times’ dining critic at the time. \nHe moved back to Indiana in January 2007, and said he hopes FARMbloomington becomes a flagship restaurant that satisfies diners.
Steve Furr has a holiday shopping strategy – buy less, and go green.\nThis year, the 21-year-old IU senior is giving friends natural, soy-based candles. He’s wrapping his gifts in recycled newspapers, instead of traditional paper. And he’s focusing on buying “experience” gifts – like tickets to IU Auditorium events – instead of consumer products.\nHe’s not alone. Around the state and across the country, a growing number of consumers are shopping for “green,” eco-friendly gifts and decorations this holiday season. Retailers are responding, offering new products, more selection and even customized catalogs to show off their green goods. \n“We’re seeing more retailers and more companies working to be more ‘green’ and telling people that they are ‘green,’” said Mike Becher, managing partner of accounting firm Deloitte & Touche’s Indianapolis office. “I think we’re starting to see people pay attention to that ‘green’ label and factoring that into their purchase decisions.”\nIn Deloitte’s annual holiday survey of retail trends, 15 percent of Indiana shoppers said they would purchase more eco-friendly products this year. Another 19 percent said they would consider not wrapping gifts to save paper.\nSimilarly, the Conscious Consumer Report, commissioned by marketing firm BBMG, recently found that nine in 10 Americans see themselves as “conscious consumers.” That means they are more likely to buy from companies that manufacture energy efficient products and commit to environmentally friendly practices.\nSensing the trend, local and national retailers are jumping into the “green” movement in force. Some are marketing “green” products in a new way, while others are increasing their product selection or reaching out to new customers.\nAt Natural Elements in downtown Bloomington, owner Robyn Thompson says she’s adding new products and attracting a new breed of shoppers to her store, which sells items such as fairly traded bamboo, hemp and organic cotton clothing, handmade paper journals and natural candles.\n“I’m starting to get people who have never been in here before,” she said, such as shoppers who might normally gravitate to retailers like Chico’s down the street. “They don’t look at my store anymore as the ‘hippie’ store over there.”\nA block away, at Wandering Turtle Art Gallery and Gifts, manager Mari Dagaz said sales are on the rise – a sign that consumers are becoming more aware of environmental issues, she said. Her store stocks an eclectic mix of reused and recycled products – think vintage 45 records converted into bowls and notebooks – plus fairly traded crafts and pottery, natural soaps and recycled metal works. \n“People really do like to offer gifts to their friends and family that are more unique,” she said. “When people shop here, they can give something that speaks about themselves.” \nNationally, luxury retailer Barney’s New York published a holiday catalog this season titled “Have a Green Holiday,” that’s filled with products such as organic cotton dresses, tote bags tanned without chemicals and, for variety, an environmentally friendly bamboo skateboard. \nEven traditional holiday decorations are going “green.” Local Wal-Mart store manager Scott Guffey said his store stocked its shelves with energy-efficient LED, or light-emitting diode, Christmas lights this season. Sales are so strong that he expects to sell out soon, even though his store’s inventory was “quite substantial,” he said.\nJenny Powers, a spokeswoman for the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the country’s largest environmental groups, said all that variety is starting to hit home for consumers. \n“People are realizing that no matter what kind of person you are, whoever you’re shopping for, there’s gifts that fit into the ‘green’ gift realm,” she said. \nThe growing demand for eco-friendly products stems from increased awareness and concern for environmental issues and global warming, she said. Al Gore’s documentary on global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth,” helped to spur interest in the subject, as did natural events like Hurricane Katrina and rising temperatures, she said.\nThe environmental movement itself kicked off with the first Earth Day in 1970, said Lucille Bertuccio, the president of Bloomington’s Center for Sustainable Living. Over time, the movement received support from some presidents and politicians, she said, but opposition from others. It wasn’t until recently, when Bertuccio said Americans can see tangible effects of global warming, that the larger public began to take an interest in the subject.\nNow, that awareness is creating a new kind of “green,” eco-friendly shopper, Powers said. \n “It’s not just your granola-eating, Birkenstock-wearing person that’s looking for some organic product,” she said. “It’s the realization that being green is much broader than that, it includes all types of products.”\n“Green” products may be more expensive than others, Powers said, and there is no clear definition or certification for labeling “green” items. But she said even products that might not typically be seen as “green” – such as Energy Star products rated for high efficiency – make good holiday gifts. \n“It’s not sold or couched as a ‘green’ product,” she said, “but it is one the greenest things you can get because it’s reducing the energy use for the product.”\nYet some people say there’s an inherent conflict in buying products to help save the environment, when conservation should be the real goal.\nDebra Amador, one of the founders of the Web site BuyLessCrap.org, says consumers should be more mindful of what they purchase. She said that endless holiday gift-giving can lead to overkill, when consumers simply don’t know what to do with all their new products.\n “’Green’ is the new sexy tagline to many companies and green is a Christmas color. You can say, ‘have a green Christmas,’ but does that mean you’re shopping socially, you’re shopping consciously?” she said. “I think we could all consume a little less and it could make a big difference.” \nVickie Temple Davison, the owner of the Bloomington Hardware, considers herself a “green” shopper and applies Amador’s advice to her own life.\nInstead of doling out expensive gifts to all her friends and relatives, Temple Davison gives her time. In the past, she threw her parents a 60th wedding anniversary party instead of buying them traditional gifts. She also organizes holiday social gatherings and cooks with friends. When she does give a gift, she often gets old photos restored so her loved ones can savor past memories.\n“You have to learn how to think differently, and thinking differently isn’t always maxing out the credit card,” she said. “I do think people end up getting into this whole thing that you have to buy, you have to buy. But you don’t always have to go out and buy the new TV or the new video game. Instead why don’t you get the board game out or help grandma take care of grandma?”\nBertuccio, of the Center for Sustainable Living, said she stays “green” during the holidays by buying as little as possible. Instead of traditional gifts, she often shops for local crafts and food products and holds potluck dinners to give her friends and family a chance to come together.\n“I think for both our kids and our friends we have to give time,” she said.\nStill, for those who want to give a gift, experts say buying a “green” product can make an impact. \nTrish Riley, the author of the “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Green Living,” said buying “green” items could stimulate businesses to change their practices and offer more eco-friendly products. \n“If we could make decisions that are more environmentally friendly, we’re sending a message to the manufacturing community that that’s what we want,” she said.\nPowers, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said that by buying “green,” consumers are also reducing energy consumption and helping to do their part to protect the environment. \n“Every little bit does count,” she said. “There’s big difference that can be made on a small scale.”
When Andrew Appel and his wife first bought the cooking supply store Goods for Cooks two years ago, its Web site featured little more than a name, a couple of photos and a phone number.\nToday, Appel says a basic site like that won’t cut it. \n“I can’t afford to be losing good customers to a bad Web experience,” he said. \nAround the city, small local retailers like Appel are giving their sites a face-lift. In an effort to better market themselves, retailers are adding new features, streamlining their site designs and providing unique content to grab consumers’ attention. \nAt Goods for Cooks, Appel has spent more than nine months and $2,000 to create an easier-to-use Web site for his downtown store. \nThe site now lists more than 550 of the store’s products and includes photos and descriptions, a recipes page and feature articles on such topics as Mediterranean olive oils and tailgating. \n“I hope it gets the word out that we have a lot of stuff and we have a lot of legit stuff to take us seriously,” Appel said. \nBy February, customers should able to purchase products directly off the site through an online shopping cart, he said. \nAcross town at sporting goods store Smith’s Sport’n Shoe in the College Mall, owner Steve Smith is adding new graphics and more product information to create a “wow” factor on his site, which he plans to re-launch soon. The old Web site had a basic, no-frills template, Smith said. The new site will also eventually include an online shopping feature. \nAt Twisted Limb Paperworks, a local company that creates recycled paper products, founder and president Sheryl Woodhouse-Keese said she saw a need to make over her 9-year-old site, which she created herself, to help her customers. \n“They could get a lot of information, but it didn’t mean it was easy and fast to use,” she said. “It was an advanced word processing document.” \nSo last spring she hired a local Internet marketing firm, which added a new online ordering system, drop-down menus for easier navigation and a “wish list” feature, which allows customers to pick items and buy them later. \nSuch changes come at a time when a growing number of retailers across the country are sprucing up their sites to better serve consumers. \nA September 2007 study published by Shop.org, part of the National Retail Federation, found that fixing online design and performance issues remains one of the top priorities for retailers. \n“Consumers expect a lot of features built into Web sites,” said Jared Beard, the owner of local Web site design firm White Iron Data, which works with local retailers. “It’s so easy to just move on to the next Web site if you can’t find what you’re looking for.” \nWhile local retailers see the need to improve their sites, they say the process can be daunting. \nAppel, the co-owner of Goods for Cooks, said small businesses, unlike large national competitors, don’t have the luxury of a full-time technology department to constantly keep their sites updated. \nFurthermore, online ordering can be hard to manage, he said. \n“You look at some of the big players on the Internet ... their infrastructure, their customer service, that’s a huge, huge investment,” Smith said. \nStill, even with the challenges, retailers say new sites bring plenty \nof benefits. \nAn effective Web site can attract people to the retail store, better promote the retailer’s products and increase store revenues, Appel said. \nHe said he hopes his site will eventually account for 25 percent, or about $100,000, of the store’s overall revenues. \nBut some local consumers say they aren’t ready to abandon in-store shopping, even if local retailers do offer new features or products online. \n“Most of the time, I’d like to go in and see (a product),” said M.A. Venkataramanan, the chairperson of undergraduate programs at IU’s Kelley School of Business and a regular online shopper. “It’s kind of fun.”
For three years, I have been enamored with Minus Story. I was hooked by their stunning album, The Captain is Dead, Let the Drum Corpse Dance. It pulled me in with its lo-fi charm, gentleness, and a dose of the kind of happiness that you can only muster once you've been into the deepest depths of melancholy. The band followed this release with No Rest for Ghosts, an album that expanded on the themes of love, hope, and ghostly apparitions, while also allowing the band to develop a more focused and cohesive sound. Now, My Ion Truss shows the band as they take another leap into strange, yet comforting territory.\nThe album begins with the dreamy, "In Line" as the lead singer, Jordan Geiger, mournfully emits a nasally passage containing cryptic prose. Then Minus Story sonically sucker punches your fragile ears and unleashes one of their most passionate and powerful songs to date, "Aaron". Rumbling drum fills, saxophone wails, guitar feedback, and haunting echoes create a chaotic and beautiful mess that is reminiscent of the forcefulness of this unassuming band's live performances. The band then gives listeners breathing room by offering up the energetic, yet airy, "Stitch me Up". The album shows Minus Story shedding their lo-fi psychedelic skin in favor of a more polished, but no less endearing, sound which demonstrates the evolution and maturity of the band. \nOne element that remains for the band, is their ability to pour the most gut-wrenching and heartbreaking feelings into their work. The drumming is urgent and punctual, the guitars are thick and distorted, the keyboards are delicate and composed, and Geiger's voice is assured, yet sometimes mournful and haunting. The result is an album that is entirely unique from the band's previous work, but still undeniably Minus Story.
Every week, hundreds of students gather together in a large lecture hall for group worship with Campus Crusade for Christ, or “Cru,” as it's affectionately known by members. The group, among others, has grown immensely in size and popularity over the last few years.
It’s 8 on a Thursday night, and the lights inside a stadium-style lecture hall in the Chemistry Building are dim. \nStudents pump their hands in the air, scream out to their friends and randomly exchange hugs. A six-person band, complete with a cymbal-banging drummer, rocks on.\nNo, this isn’t your typical worship service. This is Campus Crusade for Christ, an interdenominational Christian ministry that’s one of a growing number of organizations targeting college students who want personal religious experiences.\nAt Cru, as it’s called, organizers put special emphasis on making the worship events relevant, using contemporary music and real-world topics like drinking and sex to engage students. \n“We believe there are timeless truths that it’s up to us to effectively communicate and capture in the language and the concepts that students use today,” said Tony Arnold, the organization’s national spokesman. \nThe strategy seems to be working at IU, where staff members say attendance is up and students are interested. \nEvery week, more than 300 people pack into the group’s Thursday evening meetings while, throughout the week, about 50 smaller groups – averaging 10 students each – converge in places like dormitory basements and floor lounges to study the Bible. \nIn the past 10 years alone, the international organization has seen dramatic growth, increasing its number of campus locations from 500 in 1996 to 1,163 today.
After months of researching companies, mailing cover letters and resumes, and honing interviewing skills, the good news arrives: You’ve landed a summer internship. \nLocal career services experts say that’s a crucial first step in developing a relationship with a company. But they remind that the burden of turning the summer job into a great experience is still the student’s.\n“Getting the internship is not the end-all,” says Mark Brostoff, associate director of the Undergraduate Career Services Office at the Kelley School of Business. “You have the internship. Now you should be thinking: What does this company do, and how can I take an advantage of that?” \nCareer officials say setting mutual expectations early – and continuing to talk about them – is often the key to a successful summer. \nJustin Grossman, an assistant director of IU’s Career Development Center, recommends that students set goals with supervisors within the first week of an internship, letting them know what they hope to get out of the experience.“Disclose all intentions” to employers, he said. Let them know if you expect to take summer courses during the internship, want to tour the company’s factories and operations, or plan to take a week off midsummer (a big no-no, Grossman said).\nThe first week is also a good time to learn the power dynamics of the company, something Grossman said shouldn’t be taken lightly. The intern’s supervisor, for instance, might officially be the “boss” in the office, but the real decisions might be made by an assistant down the hall. \nUnderstanding who holds the power can help determine how interns should navigate corporate culture and form relationships, he said. \n“(Interns) need to sit back and observe for a while,” he said. “Sometimes the political structure is not the same as the actual hierarchy.” \nBrostoff said forming meaningful relationships with a variety of people and networking within the companies can help interns who want to turn their summer positions into full-time jobs after they graduate.\nHe recommends that students find a mentor or two beyond the immediate supervisor and says students should try to eat lunch with other employees in the company’s cafeteria or join a company sports team to meet people beyond their own departments. \nJohn McCoy, an IU alumnus and the finance director and treasurer of Eli Lilly and Co.’s Lilly Del Caribe division in Puerto Rico, says interns need to be aggressive in meeting people and should set up informational interviews to learn about the industry.\n“They should treat their internship like it’s a blank check,” said McCoy, who has recruited at IU and supervised about 15 interns over the past 10 to 12 years. “Not enough people, in my opinion, take advantage of the full opportunity.” \nMcCoy said that students shouldn’t expect that supervisors will set up such interviews and that interns often must take initiative. And interns should realize their supervisors are often preoccupied with their own work.\n“Sometimes projects and tasks are ill-defined,” McCoy said, recommending that interns improve the project beyond the initial assignment. “If (interns) just try to stick to that piece of paper they wont maximize their output.” \nStill, internships don’t always pan out as students expect. Grossman, from the Career Development Center, said it’s still crucial for students to try to salvage the experience to show that they can overcome difficult situations. \nBut senior Jessica Haemmerle said sometimes the internship just doesn’t work, no matter how hard you try to correct it. \nHaemmerle, a tourism-convention and event-management major, started a promotions internship with an Indianapolis radio station in January. Haemmerle thought she would learn valuable skills about how to organize large events.\nIt didn’t work out that way.\n“I wasn’t learning anything,” she said. “I would put together CD prize packs, rubber-band a T-shirt and CD together, clean out the prize closet.” \nShe talked with her supervisor but found there was little other work to be done.\n“There’s a point when you have to realize you’re just wasting your time,” she said.
