Op-Ed
Planning Summer in Winter
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One Year Out
February 2, 2007 - 2:03amIt was only the beginning of February. And yet, as I trudged through the snow on my way to class immersed in thoughts of trading sweaters for shorts and chapstick for sunscreen, summer could not arrive fast enough. Still, it felt far enough away that I needed to pinch myself to remember that the race to secure a summer internship had already begun.
I call it the “race” because each year, the process seemed to start earlier. By November, my friends applying for positions requiring security clearance had mailed their applications. And by January, my peers taking advantage of on-campus recruiting had dropped their resumes at Career Services.
With February just starting, I began my freshman search for a summer internship, hoping that the early birds hadn’t caught all the opportunities. I sought out both advertised and unadvertised positions. Cornell Career Services compiles the posted opportunities with its campus recruiting and job fairs.
The Internet was another useful source of information. Some internship websites, like jounalismjobs.com, are tailored to specific occupations; others, like idealist.org, include postings from organizations in numerous fields.
Despite the postings, the internship I found my freshman year was unpublished, one which wouldn’t have been possible without my reaching out to a contact I had developed in high school.
Parents, friends, high school teachers and even your pediatrician can be valuable resources. Stephanie Horowitz ’05 was invited by her prep school’s headmistress, who knew of her interest in architecture, to a meeting with a firm designing an addition to the school. Stephanie developed an instant rapport with the head architect. “Soon after,” she said, “I sent the firm my resume and portfolio; they ended up offering me a summer position.”
Once at Cornell, your pool of networking contacts expands immensely. Your professors are superb resources, having advised past students who have completed internships and knowing the options in their field. Also consider that your present peers will be your networking contacts for life. In my job search, a classmate who had a friend in public relations helped connect me with her.
Relationships with alumni are incredibly valuable as well, and can be developed both on and off campus. Alumni return to campus to deliver lectures and presentations. After one such panel addressed a student organization in which Margaux Neiderbach ’99 was a member, she received a summer internship offer. These alumni relationships have the potential to develop throughout the year, over the phone or via email. This network put me in contact with graduates in government, media and business, allowing me both to learn more about their jobs and to seek advice for internship applications. And while on winter break during my junior year, I met an alumnus at the Cornell Atlanta Alumni holiday brunch. We traded stories about Collegetown, professors and dining halls. A few months after the brunch, one of the alumni arranged for me to tour the television studio he worked at.
You learn about these unpublished opportunities not only through individual contacts, but through organizational ties too. For example, after reading about nonprofits or start-up firms in newspapers or magazines and exploring their websites, I wrote organizations to learn more about their work. That’s how I managed a winter externship at a think tank. If the organization doesn’t have a formal student program, you can pitch yourself as their summer intern.
Of course, not all summer internships have to take place in an office. You can work in research labs, foreign countries, new cities, classrooms and museums. Remember, you only have three summers off. Once you graduate, you may have only a week of summer vacation. Try to make the most of the time you have as a student to intern in a new place or to pursue an off-the-beaten-track opportunity.
Many recent Cornell alumni followed such paths in their internships. Evan Samek ’05 stayed in China after his study-abroad program to work on an English as a Second Language (ESL) start-up program in Changshu, two hours outside of Shanghai; Rachel Dunsmoor ’04 extended her semester internship at the International Labor Organization in Geneva, Switzerland: “I asked my boss if he would be interested in keeping me on for the summer. Fortunately, he was, and I even got a small stipend!” Former Sun reporter Nicole Neroulias Gupte ’01 worked at Parenting Magazine: “Even though it was July,” she explained, “we were working on the big December ‘Toys of the Year’ issue. This means that I, the intern, was in charge of the ‘toy closet.’”
The opportunities are limitless — you could start your own nonprofit organization or volunteer project, explore entrepreneurship or teaching — all in one summer.
For that summer after my freshmen year, my search culminated in an internship at CNN. It wasn’t finalized until April. And when I arrived, my contact worked with me to find the right fit within the company. The following summers, I signed contracts in December to teach at the Exploration Schools, creating curriculums for middle- and high-school students who wanted to learn for fun. I also spent a month in the investigative unit at ABC News after a recommendation from a peer who’d worked there.
These experiences were invaluable, and only now do I recognize the beauty in such diverse pursuits. Once you graduate, it’s not easy finding the time to “intern” in a new field.
So, this February, as you’re trudging through the snow on your way to class, consider all the options for your summer internship. You have three chances to sample a potential career field or to explore a completely new interest — make the most of them!
Julia Levy ’05 graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences in 2005. She currently works as a Research Assistant at Tanner & Co., Inc. She can be contacted at jml82@cornell.edu. One Year Out appears alternate Fridays.