Thursday, February 26, 2004 THE PENDULUM • Page 3 The Guru He wants to be more than friends, but you don't. What do you do? See column p. 5 OPINION Peaceful Activism Eric Hydrick points out the good that comes from fighting for rights. See column p. 6 Right internship can offer ^real world’job experience Bonnie Fitzpatrick Columnist Even though by definition I was a pro fessional writing and rhetoric major, before this semester started I had not the slightest clue what rhetoric was, or how it would ever pertain to my life. I don’t know if this was entirely my fault, because I did take classes that were supposed to teach it, but the concept of rhetoric just never sank in, that is until two weeks ago when I saw rhetoric at work during my internship. In senior seminar, we are required to have a mini-intemship. I was not very excited. To be exact, I was quite perturbed about the fact that I would have to add 10 to 12 more hours a week to my already busy sched ule. I thought, “Why do I need to do another dumb internship in something that I am not even interested in?” I had already decided that I had majored in the wrong thing and that after college I would do something that revolved around one of the sports I play. Tim and Michael, the senior seminar pro fessors, promised the class that the internship would pay off. I was skeptical because my internship last semester at a small publishing house was of little value for me, with the exception of get ting some articles published. In my mind, the internship thing was a waste of time for me and for many other stu dents I talked to. I often heard of interns who were fetching coffee, making copies, redun dantly editing articles or even just cleaning the office. If I had to squander 10 hours a week being someone’s free help, I was going to hate my last semester in college. I racked my brain thinking about where to intern and remembered a man I had met a year before at the Greensboro Coliseum. I took a chance and left a message descnbing Bonnie Fitzpatrick He eventually returned my call and said that I could intern with him. Honestly, I did n’t even know what it was that he did. His card simply said “operations manager,” so I figured he must do something impor tant enough that I could learn a little from him, and it was far from profes sional writing or rhetoric — so I thought. My first day at the coliseum shocked me. For the first time in my life, I could see what I was studying at woric in the real world. Concepts that had seemed so meaningless just days before suddenly became clear. Each time I am there, I leam something new from watching, listening and applying. I see how so many different ideas are really interconnected in the work worid and that the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing is present in any possible field I could go into. What I know now is that without the class es that have taught me - directly or indirectly - how to effectively communicate with peo ple, I wouldn’t have gotten the intemship to begin with, nor been able to see between the lines to gain knowledge from each event I see at the intemship and thirdly not be successful in taking advantage of all that is offered to us if we just tiy. My persistence in obtaining the intemship taught me a valuable lesson in the work place about employers. Employers want people who really want the job. They aren’t going to just hand out a job. Having previously studied rhetoric and conununication techniques, I am now able to apply them as I watch and leam from situa tions like staff meetings, interactions between my boss and the laborers who set the arena floor and day-to-day basic conversations that will take place in any job, in any field. _ For the first time in my college career, it all who I w^ and that I was looking for an makes sense, and it’s all because of my intemship and if he could help me out I would intemship. appreciate it. I e-mailed him and called him When I was wondering why in the worid back again. * classes that I just knew «- ” -I ji ■y ' -v / »-*?■ ~’V KRT Campus Edwards closes in on Kerry, but is there room for two Johns in the White House? would never be valuable to me, I had no idea that someday I would see why they are part of the curriculum and appreciate them all. It is so exciting to not only leam about my major and understand more than I ever could have learned in the classroom, but also to finally find out that there is some job out there that I think I could actually be happy doing. So when you wonder what an intemship can do for your college education, think about why you are in college in the first place. For the majority of students, I assume that it is to leam what you want to do after college and to make yourself maricetable. The value of an intemship is that it final ly takes all the little concepts that seemingly have no connection and pieces them all together. Then you can look at the big picture, and even though before you may have wondered what your degree would do for you in the too near future, you will know without any doubt that you really have gained real world knowl edge in college. I promise it will make you smile. Contact Bonnie Fitzpatrick at pen- dulum@elon.edu or 278-7247. College often more stressful than life Jessica Kemp Opinions Editor Everyone always says college is the best time of your life. If that’s true, then my life is only going to go downhill. Don’t get me wrong, college can be a lot of fun. I have made friends I will have forever and explored new activities that I wouldn’t have on my own, but it hasn’t always been fun. The first stress of college is class. With papers to write, massive amounts of reading to do and often some “busy woric” thrown in on the side, who has time for fun? On top of classes, many students try to bal ance a job. Whether the job is on or off cam pus, it still requires a huge amount of effort to work 20 hours a week and not let your school- work slip. I think we all need to prioritize and decide if all of our activities are worth the stress they inevitably induce. And when we see they aren’t, we should realize it’s OK to cut back. College is supposed to be fun, right? Contact Jessica Kemp at pendulum@elon.edu or 278-7247.

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