Summer is finally here! The spring semester has come to an end, and college students can at last breathe a collective sigh of relief and look forward to a few months of rest… if they aren’t choosing to attend sessions of summer classes or adventure abroad to gain new experiences, that is. Some students have had the pleasure of landing themselves an internship in their field of study – myself included.
My name is Anna Selby, and I am a junior Graphic Design major at East Carolina University. The field of study I have chosen is a very competitive, talent-driven one and I was absolutely ecstatic to have the opportunity to gain experiences that my fellow classmates are missing out on when they’re laying out at the beach.
Now, to the average college-age person, this internship I have would seem like a nightmare – proofing copies of products? Researching international companies? Compiling a database of useful specialists of the trade? That sounds like the stuff we did all year while we were away at school…
And yet, I could not be more excited about this. I have the opportunity here to learn things that would never be taught to me if I only concentrated on the classes for my fine arts major. Quite a few (albeit, not all) of the people I have classes with really have no idea what kind of job they want to pursue after they achieve their Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, and I feel so blessed to have the chance to dip my toes into the waters of an industry that I can really see myself working in one day.
I am not the only lucky student who was able to land an internship at Clear Blue. Laura Yost, a sophomore Public Relations major at the University of South Carolina, is in charge of keeping the sanity around the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays. A true southern girl, she loves country music, summer, and cowboy boots. Although she is in school for a degree in communications, her true passion is photography, and she hopes one day to be able to own a photography business on the side to earn some money and, most importantly, have some fun. She is also incredibly excited about this internship because it will help her gain knowledge for her upcoming classes and for the professional world after graduation.
While our stay here at Clear Blue is only for the summer, we both know that the experiences we will gain are invaluable tokens of knowledge that will stay with us for the rest of our lives. That sounds far better than spending a summer sleeping in or spending hours beside the pool to me!
-Anna Selby, Summer 2011 Intern
