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.