Intern Spotlight: A summer in D.C.

TOMORROW’S LEADER PREPARES TODAY! Written by Tamika Robinson

Washington, DC- Living in a lavish apartment with three other interns, interning in the nation’s capital, gaining advice from professionals within your desired field, and eating lunch at the NASA Headquarters. If you’ve never spent your summer doing any of the following, then you truly have not experienced the college life.

All of these are examples of the types of experiences that students with The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars receive upon acceptance into the program. Students are required to take part in an internship, attend seminars and a class, and also volunteer in their spare time. Tamika Robinson, a Chicago native and rising senior at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, gets to spend her summer doing this and so much more. “I’m really enjoying my time here and all of the opportunities that have come my way.” As a student with The Washington Center’s Mass Communication Program, Tamika spends much of her day interning at Voice of America, an international broadcasting organization. She works in the Central News Service, editing and uploading videos for Voice of America on their YouTube account and shadowing other employees.

When Tamika is not interning at Voice of America, she can be found taking the course, “Journalism: The Nuts and Bolts of Being a Reporter”, at the Washington-based office of The Associated Press. Her professor, Carole Feldman, is the Assistant Bureau Chief for The Associated Press. On the weekends when life is running at a much slower pace, Tamika is either engaged in some sort of volunteer work or viewing the city with roommates and friends. “Just last weekend I volunteered at the Marvin Gaye Park. The Washington Parks and People were hosting a festival that celebrated their efforts in cleaning up a once abandoned, heroine-infested park two years ago. They really did a great job in making the park look beautiful!”

This internship program comes highly recommended by Tamika who feels that “if the chance presents itself to go some place different and do something great, take it!” Once the internship program is over, she will go on to graduate from Saint Mary’s.

Visit the Internship Office to learn more about Saint Mary's partnership with The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars.