Spending time with family and friends. Going to the beach. Reading Harry Potter.  And interning in Philadelphia, PA.  At two different organizations.  The summer after my freshman year.

Pretty much sums up my summer!

No, it is not very common that a student gets an internship the summer after their first year at college, but at Ithaca College the opportunities to intern anywhere at any time during your college career are plentiful. The College has internship databases, a great Career Services Department and most importantly, a well-known and helpful staff.

My internship experience was so wonderful, it is hard for me to express without sharing some details. 

My one internship was with Philadelphia Weekly, an alternative newsweekly in Center City Philadelphia.  There, my primary responsibility was fact-checking articles.  I learned so much about sources and I was surprised to learn how much misinformation is on the Internet.  I enjoyed being able to make sure the newsweekly contained correct information each week in order to maintain its status as a respected publication.  I also loved the energetic workers and other interns there as well as its location in the city.  My favorite part of the internship was having the opportunity to write for the online website.  I was able to cover a protest against the Philadelphia Inquirer’s coverage of the Honduran coup, in which I wrote a piece as well as filmed and edited a video.  I also wrote a feature article about a UPenn Wharton professor who is also an Obama adviser and an expert at World of Warcraft.  I can’t believe I have two bylines on the website of a publication that has 95,000 readers!

The Prometheus Radio Project, a non-profit organization that advocates for Low Power FM (LPFM) radio, located in West Philly, was the site of my other internship.  There, I got to do a lot of general campaign work, which helped me become familiar with the process of making bills into laws.  I did a lot of outreach work, such as contacting constituents of key states, promoting on Facebook and Twitter and organizing a National Call-In Day.  I also wrote an article for Prometheus about the educational benefits LPFMs provide, which will be appearing in their upcoming newsletter.  In order to illustrate how to advocate for LPFM, I also filmed and edited a lobby training video.  A really cool task was organizing an in-district meeting in Florida.  I had to contact citizens of FL willing to hold a meeting with the senator to encourage him to cosponsor our bill.  I truly felt that I made a difference for this organization during my time there.

Now I will admit that I did not receive a melodious knock on my door from a smiley-faced Ithaca College adviser encouraging me to just sign the dotted line, which would in turn grant me two internships.  No, it was not much like a dream; I definitely had to work hard to get them.

However, at Ithaca College the resources are there, you just have to take advantage of them.  I applied for and was chosen to receive the Independent Media Internship scholarship program, which is a program that sponsors students to intern at progressive media organizations.  Jeff Cohen, director of the program, is well known in the media-world and helps eligible students find notable places to intern. 

This is just one way to go about obtaining an internship.  The Office of Career Services helps students find internships all the time.  When you study abroad, the Office of International Programs makes sure you have an internship in the new country you are about to discover.  And never forget to just simply ask your professor and I’m sure you will find something good!

It's not everyday that the temperature in Ithaca reaches 85 degrees, like it did this past weekend!

So, my friend Lindsey and I decided to explore beautiful sites around Ithaca, both on and off campus!

AND we captured our adventure just for YOU!

Enjoy!:

Who knew saving lives for 12 hours 30 years in the past could be so much fun? 

This past weekend I had a blast (from the past) leading a team in a 12 hour event called Relay for Life, which is an event put on by the American Cancer Society to raise money for cancer research.  Ithaca College students participate in this event annually, and this year's theme was the 80's! 

I definitely got decked out in 80's gear: bright leggings, off the shoulder top, big flat earrings, blue eye shadow, red lipstick, side ponytail, and of course the signature scrunchie.

My team and I went to Cornell's Barton Hall to participate in Relay.  Ithaca College and Cornell University join together to take part in this event.  There were 1,117 participants making up 124 teams.  On this huge indoor track my team found a place to "camp out" and then we started walking around the track.  Tables that had various activities were set up around the track.  There was  tie-dying, a caricaturist, fish pong, video games, competitions, and much more!  Also, performers from different organizations were on stage providing entertainment throughout the entire night.

Though the event in itself was a wonderful time, the best part about it was raising money for cancer research.  I am extremely proud to say my team raised over $1,200!  Ithaca and Cornell students combined raised over $215,000!

They revealed this total at the very end of the event at 5 A.M., which I am extremely glad we stayed for!  (And yes, I did stay up all 12 hours!)  Along with the amount total, Colleges Against Cancer's (the student group who organizes the event) executive committee handed out awards. 

It went a little like this...

Committee: The Most Spirited Team award goes to team Anything is Possible!

My Team: Aw man! Really?

Committee: No it's you guys!

My Team: [cheers, excitement]

Apparently, they thought our team name was Anything is Possible, which was the phrase on the backs of our shirts.  Our actual team name was T-Cubed, written as T³, which we thought of because we all live in Terrace 3 and of course the Rubik's Cube is very 80's.  Either way, we still happily accepted the award, as we were very spirited!  We all made t-shirts, baked cupcakes and raised a great deal of money.  Plus, we did really well in the air guitar competition.  It was the perfect ending for such an exciting, yet meaningful event.

One more note:  As a freshman, with this being my first time participating in Relay for Life, I was surprised to notice how much Ithaca College dominated the event.  Most of the teams were made up of Ithaca College students — same went for the performers on stage as well as the activity booths around the track.  Our Colleges Against Cancer executive committee was also clearly running back and forth running the event.  Cornell University has over twice as many undergraduate students as Ithaca!  I guess it goes to show we are a small school with a lot of passion.