So here I am, back on the east coast. I know I haven’t been blogging lately about my summer experience; it’s just that I’ve been ridiculously busy with my internship and life in general. I started my internship with the Office of Presidential Correspondence in late May, so I’m about halfway done with it now. But before I go into the details of that, I need to go way back before that to share my entire experience.
It took me a while to find an internship, as you might imagine. I actually started my search in October or November 2012, which might be a bit early, but not if you want to work in DC, specifically the government sector since it takes month to process clearances and security checks. I applied to about ten internships total- pretty standard- as well as to the CLS program for Arabic. For those unaware of CLS, it stands for Critical Language Scholarship, which is a language and cultural immersion program. Unfortunately, I was notified that I was not accepted into the program in mid-January, which made a bit upset honestly, but I knew I had other options. That’s when I really started focusing on applying to more internships as well as improving my cover letter and resume. I was basing my entire search for summer internships off of Pomona’s Career Development Office’s database, Route47, which was full of listings, as well as another site that focuses on internships, jobs, and volunteer opportunities in the social sciences, so perfect for IR majors.
