The internship

  What is Student Affairs?  Think of a college or university.  Take away the students, take away the professors.  Who's left?  Us!  The best way to describe SA is with examples: Career Services, Housing, Office of Orientation, Student Activities, Office of Student Leadership & Civic Engagement, Campus Recreation, First Year Programs (what I will be doing in the fall), International Student Services, Multicultural Student Services, Deans, Provosts, Presidents, etc!!  There are soooooo many SA offices and functions and every single institute of higher education is completely different.  From the previous post, you've guessed my goal is to work in an Office of International Programs and/or International Students.  Oddly, sometimes these offices are considered on the Academic Affairs side, but many professions acquire the degree I am earning for jobs on the academic side (such as admissions and advising).

   For my program, I must complete 2 internships (each a semester in length). My anticipation was to complete one in the fall of 2012 and one in the spring of 2013.  Due to a scheduling conflict and the class I needed for this summer not being offered, I was left merely 3 weeks before the summer term began to find an internship in order to enroll in the internship course (otherwise I would not have been enrolled full-time and would have had to overload in the fall). With very little help from my school (don't get me wrong- I love my school), I began cold calling every international program office at every university in the state of Maryland and the D.C. area.  After nearly 40 phone calls the odds were not in my favor. 

  Jokingly, I brought up the Naval Academy to my parents and a few friends and decided to call on a desperate, frantic, whim.  It rang all day, but I didn't leave a message.  Around 4:00pm I received a phone call.  "Hi, did you call?"  I had no idea who this was and asked where they were calling from.  "The United States Naval Academy."  I quickly gathered my thoughts and spat out "I was just wondering if you were looking for an intern this summer in your office?"  He paused and said "Sure, that'd be great."

  That was 2 weeks ago, and I begin tomorrow.  We had a skype interview, and I was introduced to another worker in charge of semester programs who I'd be working directly with.  I've been told I'll be working on clearing 17 midshipmen to go on foreign naval ships for the fall.  Contacting our embassy, the foreign embassy, writing their orders, gathering their travel materials, etc.  Then I'll help prepare for the international cadets who will be coming from Spain, Peru, Russian, France & Chile.  I thought I'd be more nervous, but I'm so positive that this is what I'm supposed to be doing that I just can't wait to do it.  I've had some extremely negative luck the past few years, I just want to soak up every second of this internship.  

  I'm doing this blog mostly so my mom doesn't call me every single day and ask for every detail of what's going on at the USNA.  Also, because I think it's a particularly fascinating institute, threaded with deep history and traditions that I'm honored to be a part of.