Opinion

POORE | Your Internship Wasn’t Good Enough

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An AEM major recently instructed me that, when informed by someone that they spent their summer interning at a nonprofit, the preferred response is: “That must’ve been so rewarding for you.” (And to please refrain from scoffing until well out of earshot). And I may never live down the fact that I was rejected by an unpaid internship the summer after my freshman year. My friends love to joke that I wasn’t even good enough to be a volunteer. Thus, it might seem improper for me to speak on the subject of internships, having never possessed one myself that was worthy of being considered good by Cornell standards. In fact, this past summer I labored at a public relations agency specializing in the cannabis industry, of all things (undoubtedly contributing to the deterioration of American values, and all that for minimum wage).