Up Front with President Lindsay

Internships for Life

When Peter Kang ’14, Jessica Rabe ’14, Allana Notaro ’15 and Nathan Calandra ’14 arrived in Rio de Janeiro for a summer internship with a technology firm, their first challenge was to figure out what they could do in six weeks that would be genuinely useful to their temporary colleagues—a savvy group of managers ranging from computer scientists to financial specialists.

After an initial brainstorming meeting with their managers, the team of interns got to work on their first project: an evaluation of the company’s website, and recommendations for the most effective use of social media. After two weeks of research, they presented their findings. “It was very interactive,” Peter says. “They asked a lot of questions.”

In the weeks that followed, they coordinated a TEDx talk, worked with a finance official to help present the office’s budget, and, for their final project, worked up a presentation on the very timely subject of “Big Data”—that is, data sets so large and complex that they are difficult to process using traditional applications.

During a trip to Brazil this summer, I visited with the team. I was struck by how far they had come in just a few short weeks—there is no substitute for this kind of up-close-and-personal immersion in actual workplaces. Students gain a sense of the big picture, and also of the gritty day-to-day realities of colleagues and deadlines.

Around 260 Gordon students participated in internships over the last year. In order to advance our students’ professional development across the liberal arts, we’re looking to increase not just the number but the range of fields of these internships. In fact, we’d love to have more of you partner with the College in providing our students with internships (academic, co-ops, or practicums; domestic or international). So if you know of any such opportunities, please email [email protected].

We are pleased to have just welcomed our largest and most talented class of incoming students ever. Who knows how they will be changed by their time here, and what contributions they will make to the world? Our best recruiters are people like you, with close personal ties to the College.

So I’m going to make another request: If you know a student who might be a good fit here, please refer him or her to the College. We’d love to be in touch about the ever-expanding opportunities at Gordon.

[email protected]
www.gordon.edu/presidentspage
twitter.com/GordonPres

<< BACK