Right internship can offer ‘real world’ job experience

Bonnie Fitzpatrick / Columnist

Even though by definition I was a professional 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-internship. 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 schedule.

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 professors, 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 getting some articles published.

In my mind, the internship thing was a waste of time for me and for many other students I talked to. I often heard of interns who were fetching coffee, making copies, redundantly 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 describing who I was and that I was looking for an internship and if he could help me out I would appreciate it. I e-mailed him and called him back again.

He eventually returned my call and said that I could intern with him. Honestly, I didn’t even know what it was that he did. His card simply said “operations manager,” so I figured he must do something important enough that I could learn a little from him, and it was far from professional 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 work in the real world. Concepts that had seemed so meaningless just days before suddenly became clear.

Each time I am there, I learn something new from watching, listening and applying. I see how so many different ideas are really interconnected in the work world 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 classes that have taught me – directly or indirectly – how to effectively communicate with people, I wouldn’t have gotten the internship to begin with, nor been able to see between the lines to gain knowledge from each event I see at the internship and thirdly not be successful in taking advantage of all that is offered to us if we just try.

My persistence in obtaining the internship 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 communication techniques, I am now able to apply them as I watch and learn from situations 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 makes sense, and it’s all because of my internship.

When I was wondering why in the world I had to take certain classes that I just knew 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 learn 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 internship 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 learn what you want to do after college and to make yourself marketable.

The value of an internship is that it finally 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 knowledge in college.

I promise it will make you smile.