Scene Sixty-Two: INTERNSHIPS

From first-years to seniors, the word INTERNSHIP produces ebullient enthusiasm. Or sometimes severe nausea.

In preparation for our future careers in i-banking/consulting/(does anyone actually go into anything other than that?)/etc., and to avoid spending extended periods of time back in the nests that we have already flown, we tend to spend our off-terms in a career-oriented capacity.

Well, most of us.

I'm not one to do things the traditional way. This past summer I worked as a Residential Counselor for Duke TIP Summer Studies and had a wonderful time making door-decs, enforcing bedtimes, filling water balloons, and the like. This term, in addition to modeling for the Studio Art department and taking classes and doing everything else that I do, I have two internships.

The first is for OPAL as a Diversity Peer Leadership Program Intern. Essentially, I partake of weekly training under the guidance of Nora Yasumura and take the skills that I learn into the real world by facilitating discussions about gender, sexuality, socioeconomic class, ethnicity, religion, and ability in both formal and informal settings. Sometimes I am invited by a UGA to run a short workshop with a floor, sometimes it's something more informal over dinner at Home Plate. In any case, I get people engaged.

My second internship is with the nonprofit organization Global Grassroots. I work directly with founder and president Gretchen Wallace on a variety of projects. On schedule for this term are an annual report of Global Grassroots' progress from the previous year and a new business card for CVTS.

No, they're not traditional. But this is what I enjoy, and above all else: happiness. Perhaps if more of my peers agreed with me they would know far more ebullient enthusiasm and far less nausea.


*** Update 1 (15 June 2011): The Global Grassroots annual report for 2010-2011 is now available!