Opportunity Knocks!

After a quick career path change at the beginning of my junior year, I have had multiple opportunities to explore different career options through the Center for Career Development. The most recent opportunity brought me to The Carmel Pine Cone in Pacific Grove, California. Over the course of the week, my host, Elaine, demonstrated how to perfect the balance of work and play in her field. As a features editor, her work is inherently interesting. She is constantly switching from subject to subject—a confusing, yet refreshing situation that I encountered during my time with her. The week began with research; I researched topics for a column about home improvement, which coincidentally ended up getting cut on Wednesday—a common occurrence in the ever-changing environment of the newsroom. We set up interviews for the days ahead and researched those subjects as well, developing questions and growing more interested in the people we had yet to meet, but […]

First, I want to thank Mr. Dunlop and Mr. Loughman, for giving me the chance to participate [in] this externship in Atlantic (USA) LLC, also thank all my colleagues who treated me friendly and helped me with patience. Although this externship only lasts for a week, I think it is an amazing experience. Before the first day of my work, I realized commuting is not an easy thing for salarymen working in Manhattan. Manhattan has a sky-scraping housing price, therefore, it is common for normal white-collars living in places that take an hour to reach their companies in Manhattan. For me, I need to wake at around 6:30 am and catch the 7:36 am LIRR train to Penn Station, where I will transfer to subway and head to the southern end of Manhattan. This is the only way to go to work on time. Though it’s not easy to follow this schedule, after spending the […]

An Advertisement For Advertising My first day as an extern with Nissan United was a headfirst dive into the world of advertising. My first meeting with Jon Castle, the president of Nissan United, served as a briefing on every aspect of an ad agency, as well as the complicated and lengthy process between conception and publication of an advertisement. The part of this process that most caught my attention was the idea of a “target audience” and how that audience is found and fleshed out. One of the conference rooms in the office features huge marketing boards detailing the target audience for each individual Nissan model – everything from “millennial hipster” to “adventurous parent”. The way a company specifies branding to target such a hyper specific audience is so intriguing to me. Thankfully, I was able to speak at length with two planners – the people responsible for relaying communication between the regional and global […]

A Week at Cornerstone I am so appreciative of this week with Cornerstone. Before this externship, I was unsure of whether or not the finance and investment industry was for me. Now, I feel convinced that I do want to start my professional career in the finance and investment industry. I attribute my apprehension about the finance industry to not having much exposure to it. Yes, I have learned a great deal about finance and the business industry in my classes but nothing as tangible as speaking with professionals in this field, so having that opportunity this past week has opened my eyes to opportunities I did not know even existed.   One of the greatest insights was learning that there are many different subsets of the finance and investment industry. I used to think all firms worked as stock pickers because that was what I learned about in my classes. I learned that although […]

Philips Personal Health is a division of the Dutch multinational electronics company Philips which is known for its production of consumer electronics and other small appliances. Philips is present in more than 100 countries. Where are headquarters?  The headquarters for Philips Personal Health is in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, but the North American headquarters is in Stamford, CT. What are some well-known Philips products?  Sonicare Electric Toothbrushes, Philips Lightbulbs (Fun Fact: Philips lights the ball that drops in Times Square on New Year’s Eve!), Philips Norelco Shavers, Avent uGrow Smart Baby Monitor, the WakeUp Light, the OneBlade (coming soon!), and many other products! Their Vision: “At Philips, we strive to make the world healthier and more sustainable through innovation. Our goal is to improve the lives of 3 billion people a year by 2025. We will be the best place to work for people who share our passion. Together we will deliver superior value for our […]

My week at the Turtle Rescue Team (TRT) stationed inside North Carolina State University Veterinary College allowed me to experience things I never thought I would get to experience while in my undergraduate education. The Turtle Rescue Team is a volunteer-run organization centered at the college’s vet hospital. Here, a small team of veterinarians (including Dr. Greg Lewbart, my externship host), some vet students ranging from first-years to a DVM-PhD student in her 6th year, nearby undergraduate students hoping to pursue a veterinary career, and volunteers that wish to help out from around the area team up to collect injured turtles from around North Carolina and treat them until they can be released into the wild again. They treat primarily Box Turtles, but will attempt to help any turtle that makes its way to the Rescue Center, including Cooters, Yellow-Bellied Sliders, Snapping Turtles, and a handful of other species. While there, I learned the basic […]

Two students spent the week at Morgan’s Wonderland in San Antonio, Texas, each writing about their experience. You can read about Laura Kowalik’s experience on her personal blog site.  Kaitlyn’s experience is included below: Morgan’s Wonderland: A Special Place for Special Friends by Kaitlyn Budney ’19 For a week this past summer I was an intern at Morgan’s Wonderland in San Antonio, Texas.  Morgan’s is an amusement park built from the ground up for disabled children.  This park was dreamt up by Gordon Hartman, a real estate developer for low to middle income families.  He was watching his daughter Morgan, who has special needs, try to play with some children at a local pool.  He saw how the children reacted to Morgan and was saddened.  He set out to build a place founded on the spirit of inclusion.  So he created Morgan’s Wonderland where everyone, no matter the age or ability, can play and learn […]

We often take for granted the ready access to clean drinking water and the disposal of wastewater in our lives.  For most of us, there is no guessing game when it comes to turning the knob of a fossett. We are fortunate enough to know, not hope, that clean water will come out.  This past week I was fortunate enough to spend time at American Water Enterprises located in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey. American Water is the largest publicly traded water and wastewater utility in the United States. American Water serves around 15 million people and employs 6,800. There are three branches within American Water.  First, there is homeowners branch, this branch educates homeowners on the importance of insuring the water and wastewater pipes on their property. The second branch is the contract services group; this group focuses on providing water to different groups for example a town or a school.  Lastly, there is the […]

My experience at Rippowam Cisqua School was nothing short of insightful, interesting and fun. Rippowam Cisqua School is located in Westchester County in NY, and is a private institution. Being that I went to only public schools until I came to Gettysburg College, this externship really provided me with a deeper understanding of an unfamiliar environment. It was amazing to me the resources which the students were given, from Mac computers to use in their computer labs to programs to help them organize their work, the students were provided with many tools to help them succeed in the classroom. I also found it impressive regarding how the students were so passionate about their school work and excited to show me what they were working on. My entire externship experience I just kept thinking back to my own time in sixth grade, comparing and contrasting it to what I was seeing at Rippowam. As a 6th […]

Renewable Energy Vermont, what does this title entail? How many solar panels and wind turbines will I be working on? In fact, the job description is much more difficult than installing a field of panels or climbing 250 + feet inside of a turbine. Olivia Cambell Andersen, the Executive Director of Renewable Energy Vermont, is tasked with long, complicated meetings where everything she stands for becomes a twisted tornado of paperwork, rules, and jurisdictions. Thankfully, Olivia is not alone on her journey. There are multitudes of other Clean Energy organizations that rally for the same cause as Renewable Energy Vermont. I was introduced to state representatives from respective northeastern states other than Vermont, such as Rhode Island, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire at the North Eastern Clean Energy Conference (NECEC) in Boston, Massachusetts. Every Representative prepared slides divulging new progress, and a few shortcomings each state faced in their fight for Clean/Renewable energy. All in […]