June 20th, 2008
College Students at the Olympics
An internship at the Beijing Olympics? Talk about a resume builder. How could you say no?
Well, I suppose if you are boycotting the Olympics for the Chinese political domination over Tibet, you could technically say no. (If you’ve seen or read Seven Years in Tibet, you’d have some sympathy.) But, overall, as a college student who wants a career in media broadcasting, it’s hard to turn down the opportunity to intern with Olympic News Service.
ONS contracts with five different U.S. colleges and universities to bring 25 to 50 student interns from each institution. Usually, they are juniors or seniors with a major in communications or media programs. It seems to be a highly selective process at any of the colleges.
Yes, the students have to pay their own travel expenses, by the way. But they do earn academic credit for the experience (not to mention pretty much a guaranteed foot in the door to the communications industry for a job after graduation). And with an economy as sour as it is, interning while you’re still in college just makes sense to earn some professional experience.
It just goes to show that there’s a whole world (so to speak) of internships out there. You don’t have to choose between education and experience - you can do both!
If you’ve had a cool internship while you’ve still been in school (including the summer), post a comment about it below:
an interesting dilemma. I would like to think that free informed speech trumps most other things most times…
Comment by Kudzu Fire — June 22, 2008 @ 12:08 pm