Exploring the benefits of Winter Term internships

Author: By Ethan Lake

For some, Winter Term is a time of low-key vegging. For others, however, internships maintained over the month of January provide hands on experience and experimentation in possible career fields. Nearly 170 students apply for internships during the month of January in myriad locations, from Lehman Brothers financial in New York, to Porter Hospital in town (one of the most popular internships annually), to international aid organizations in countries such as Swaziland.

What do the internships involve, and how does one apply for them?

According to the 2005 Winter Term Internship application, "Internships involve significant, high-level exposure to and participation in the work of an established career. [...] Winter Term Internships require a minimum of 100 hours of active participation during Winter Term. According to Middlebury College policy, internships for academic credit are unpaid career experiences, although students may receive a stipend to pay for their living expenses."

Sophomores through Seniors may apply for an internship during January, and 99 percent of those who fill out the detailed application and obtain the support of their advisor have their applications accepted by the Curriculum Committee. In order for the internship to be valid for credit the student must write an essay outlining their prospective internship and submit it to the Curriculum Committee along with their application. During the course of their work they must either keep a journal of their activities or take notes on their experience, as well as make a good impression on their supervisor. Once the internship is completed the student must either submit their journal to the Career Services Office (CSO) or submit an essay evaluating their experience from the notes they took during the month.

Why would a student voluntarily cede their J-Term, generally a time of skiing and enjoyment, for 100 hours of work in the labor force when it seems that Middlebury students try as hard as possible to delay entering the real world. Charles Goulding '05 and Jenna Boyle '06.5 share their thoughts on why they decided to eschew J-Term for an internship.

Goulding is an intern with the Honorable William K. Sessions, U.S. District Judge. When asked what motivated him to seek an internship, he replied that "the CSO sent out a number of emails about them and they sounded pretty compelling. They mentioned that the internships were 'fantastic opportunities' and so forth and that caught my eye. I also felt like the school had all these resources I wasn't 'tapping' and that I'd regret it if I didn't use CSO a bit more."

How does working, however, compare to the usual winter term routine? Gould explains that "all in all this internship beats the J-term classes I've taken and it would be stupid not to at least look into one next year. When I tell people I'm clerking for a Federal Court Judge a lot of them look shocked. My Uncle told me at his law school any type of clerkship was impressive but that a clerkship with a Federal Court Judge was 'like, whoa.' If this type of thing appeals to you at all, the competition is a fraction of what it will be in the real world. Judge Sessions is also a very highly regarded person and the chance to observe him doing his thing for a month is a privilege."

Boyle, on the other hand, decided to work at Lehman Brothers, a the New York investment banking firm, because she knew she didn't want to stay at Middlebury. "So when the opportunity to intern at Lehman Brothers presented itself, I thought it would be a great way to spend J-term. I had never seriously considered a career in the financial investment industry, and I thought that a month long internship would be the perfect way to discover my level of interest in the business," Boyle said.

Of her experience at the firm, Boyle said, "The first couple of days were a complete whirlwind and a lot of the jargon was Greek to me. By the end of the first week though, I had learned a tremendous amount and really started to get a grasp of the business. On Day one I was exposed to the bond market for the first time. By the end of the week, I was in on conference calls to branches across the country -and could actually understand what was going on. I spend a lot of my time just talking with the sellers and traders, watching them in action and gaining their insights and knowledge. I love the environment of this internship."

The Career Service Office says that there exists strong anecdotal evidence that seeking internships not only aids a student's resumé for graduate school, but may even help them in finding a job after college. Several students have commented that they have been offered jobs with the firm that they interned at post graduation. Just some food for thought for next J-term