Students pursue summer internships to gain experience

Plenty of Wilkes students participate in a variety of internships every semester. Although no two students share the same experience while interning, all of them are participating in an internship to gain experience and learn new things about their fields of study.

Sara Cosgrove, sophomore communication studies major, has concentrations in telecommunications and public relations which will lead her to intern this summer at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa.

Cosgrove worked at the Raceway last summer selling tickets and was offered an internship this summer working in the public relations and marketing office. "I'll be helping with different events to promote the race track," explained Cosgrove.

This will be Cosgrove's second internship. She has been an intern at the Development Office at Wilkes since September 2009 working with the Alumni Office to do phone-a-thon campaigns and other similar tasks.

Although this is the second internship that Cosgrove has had she explained that she's still excited for the fun and the experience interning at Pocono Raceway is sure to bring. "We go places like Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins hockey games and Hershey Park to promote the racetrack," said Cosgrove.

Cosgrove will be blogging about her internship on www.wilkes.edu/coop. "I'll probably blog about every two weeks with updates on what I did," Cosgrove said.

After carrying an internship all school year and another in the summer Cosgrove doesn't plan on interning in the fall, but she explained that she plans on interning again before graduating from Wilkes. "You can never have enough experience," said Cosgrove.

Also interning this summer is Brian Meeker, junior business administration major with a concentration in finance. Meeker will gain financial experience while participating in an internship at Merrill Lynch in Red Bank, New Jersey. Meeker's internship will focus mainly on assisting financial analysts.

While working and learning, Meeker and the other interns will also be competing with each other and having fun. Meeker explained that there will be ten other students interning at Merrill Lynch and all the interns compete in a stock game, where they will receive imitation money to spend on virtual trades.

He doesn't know if the winner of the virtual stock trading game will get any prizes, but Meeker does know that he wants to make a good impression and doesn't want to come in last in the competition.

While Cosgrove and Meeker have been accepted to their internships, not everyone has been so lucky.

Erin Gallagher, junior integrative media major applied to an internship at the 2010 PromaxBDA conference in Los Angeles, but has yet to hear whether or not she has been accepted as an intern.

According to promaxbda.org, the conference is "the world's largest entertainment marketing, promotion and design event."

Gallagher applied for the week long internship because she wants to meet people in the media industry and discover what employment opportunities will be available when she graduates.

As someone who is new to the integrative media department, and also a non-traditional student, if accepted this would be Gallagher's first internship. "I have no idea what to expect. I am mostly nervous and a little scared," said Gallagher.

Even though she is a bit nervous, Gallagher is also curious to see if there will be any other interns her age at the conference.

"I don't know enough about graphic design to contribute... it's mostly intimidating. I just hope I can keep up with the other interns. But I'm also excited for the opportunity to see L.A. and maybe get some behind the scenes experience in the field," said Gallagher.