get an internship

Here is the list of places I am applying to for next summer.

-Cincinnati Zoo _{of course it is my top place}
-Northwest Trek Wildlife Park (in Eatonville, WA) Info
-And I’m really considering doing the Alaska SeaLife Center internship. Info

The last one sounds really great. But I have to look into it more.

I found out that I didn’t get into the Cincinnati Internship program.

I called all of my friends and my boyfriend balling my eyes out.

I’ve wanted this since I was 5 years old.

I had to call the zoo, they said they sent an e-mail to everyone who applied, I never got mine.

I was just thankful I didn’t have to have the actual person tell me. As soon as she said no on the voicemail, I started crying. I knew I would have cried on the phone.

I just spent the day with my friends, got out of the house.

We went to the mall. It seemed like everywhere I looked, I saw animal print. Not good.

Even my journal is animal print. I started it hoping I’d have my internship and I could write about that in there.

Now it’s a lie.

Luckily I have another one, with a zebra on it.

Today is not a good day…:(

I wrote an entry for finishing college that could work for this as well…

At least not on the East Coast. And if I could afford to find an apartment for 3 months, I’d apply to San Diago.

Anyways, here is what I am hoping to get for the Cincinnati internship.

Animal Care
Interns working in the Animal Care departments have the opportunity to work under the supervision of experienced animal keepers. Interns help to maintain the animal collection by preparing diets, cleaning exhibits, shifting animals, and monitoring the health of the collection.
Working with the keeper staff, interns gain experience in providing for the needs of exotic animals in captivity and acquire better understanding of the requirements of these animals.

Interns are assigned to a morning and afternoon animal area and are working from the hours of 8:00am to 3:30pm, generally Monday-Friday. Animal care experience is available in the following areas:
• Manatee Springs (Manatees and other Floridian wildlife)
• African Veldt/ Rhino Reserve (Indian and black rhinoceros and various hoof stock)
• Amphibian Collection
• Cat House
• Children’s Zoo (rare barnyard livestock and small eastern woodland animals)
• Commissary
• Vanishing Giants (elephants, giraffe and okapi)
• Insectarium
• Jungle Trails (primates and small nocturnal animals)
• Nocturnal House
• Primate Center (lowland gorillas, colobus monkeys and guenons)
• Reptile House
• Wildlife Canyon (Sumatran rhinoceros and various hoof stock)
• Wings of the World (birds)

Environmental Education
Working in the Education Department provides interns with an opportunity to convey an appreciation and understanding of the natural world to others. Professional educators offer support, training, and guidance in presenting live animal demonstrations, along with assisting you in the coordination and instruction of various educational programs.
Opportunities include:
• Summer Day Camp: Interns are instructors for classes designed for children ages 3-11. This is a morning assignment and in the afternoon, interns either continue working in Education or in an animal area.
• Discovery Center presentations–Summer only
• Conservation programs–Year round
• Outreach programs to schools-–Sept. – May
• Zoo classes for all ages–Year round
• Graphic Design–Year round
• Animal presentations–Summer only; one position each for “Wings of Wonder” bird show and “Cats, Cats, Cats” cat show. Prior experience in handling and training exotic animals is required.

The ones I bolded are the ones I applied for…

I applied to Cincinnati. I just have to wait until around the middle of April to find out…

I’d kind of like to find more to apply to. But I’m sure the deadlines have passed. I’ll do research today.

How to Find an Internship

An internship is a pre-professional work experience that provides students, recent graduates, and those seeking to change careers with the opportunity to gain experience in a particular career field. For students, internships also supplement academic classes and, in some cases, earn college credit. For recent graduates and individuals considering a career change an internship is a way to try a new job without making a permanent commitment. An internship is a way to test the waters in a variety of career fields, to gain “real-life” experience, and a way to decide on – or opt out – of a certain vocation.
It’s not too late to line up an internship for next semester. It is important to visit your college’s Career Services or Internship Programs office as soon as you get back on campus or check out their online resources if you still have some time before classes start.

The office can direct you to internships targeted specifically towards students from your college. MonsterTrak is the top college oriented job listing database and also houses an internship database (select “internships” when searching). If you are a current student or a college graduate check with your school’s Career Services office to see to see if your college is partnered with MonsterTrak and, if so, to obtain a password.
If you’re a recent graduate looking for some work experience or are interested in a career change, consider an internship to get an insider’s view of a new career field. It will allow you to gain experience and to decide if this is something you really want to do. Plan your internship search just as you would a job search, but, specify when you apply that you’re interested in an internship rather than a permanent position.

Start with the sites that let you search specifically for internships Internweb.com, for example, has an advanced search feature that enables you to specify location, industry, job function, time of year and keyword. Our directory has internship listings in a variety of locations and career fields.

Using the keyword search component of the major online jobs databases and searching for “intern” or “internship” is another way to generate internship leads.

Need more leads? Speak with teachers, family, former employers, coaches, friends, parents of friends – anyone and everyone you can think of – and ask for contacts in your geographic and/or career fields of interest. Meet with (or email or call) these individuals for information about careers and advice about conducting your internship search. Read our guide to Informational Interviews for how to get started.

Now for the logistics. Internships can be paid or unpaid. It is important to check with the company before you take the position to determine if there is a salary, a stipend or no compensation. Academic credit is a possibility for many internships. However, the internship will need to be approved for credit by your college and you may need a faculty sponsor. The internship sponsor must also agree to supervise and evaluate the internship experience. In many, cases there are school deadlines for applying for credit, so check soon with the appropriate department at your institution.

It makes good sense to have a clear idea of what’s expected from you and what you expect from the employer before you start the internship. Discuss the details and the logistics with the internship sponsor before you start, so the internship will be a positive experience for both you and the company.

Choose the Right Internship
Think in advance about what you want from your experience. As Dave Bracken notes in Define Your Internship Goals, “You’ll sound more informed and focused if you can describe to potential employers exactly what kind of experience you want.”

Assess your motives—taking into account your strengths, weaknesses, affinities, and expectations. Think about the way you work best: Do you value flexibility? Creativity? Coworker interaction? Do you want to learn a specific skill or just beef-up your resume? Are you willing to work for free or next-to-nothing or do you need a cash incentive?
Use the temporary nature of the arrangement to your advantage. An internship is a great way to see if your major can become your career, or if your plans are realistic or idealized. It can also be a time to try something completely new.

Define the Job Expectations
Agree on a detailed job description and performance expectations. “The candidate should evaluate whether [the company’s] project will meet her needs,” advises Lowell Beatty, 3Com’s college-relations specialist. “Ask plenty of questions upfront. ‘Will I be evaluated? Can I make a final presentation?’”

Make sure your expectations are clear. As former Bear Stearns intern Annette Rodriguez notes, “Sure [an internship] looks good on your resume, and it could lead to [a job], but you do it for you.”
Try to settle upon a wage or stipend—even a small salary will make you take the job more seriously. If money is out of the question, look into the possibility of school credit. Avoid taking another part-time job just to make money—it will only distract you from your internship experience.

Maximize Your Time on the Job

Be responsible. Show up on time, work hard, and limit the amount of time you spend socializing. Doing so will go a long way toward proving your integrity and worth.

Take initiative. If you’re bored, tell someone. If there’s a project that interests you, volunteer to help. If a coworker is attending a seminar, ask to go along. If you’re not finding enough guidance, request a mentor or supervisor—someone you can shadow or work with directly.

Be self-sufficient. Says Thomas Reynolds, an analyst at Lehman Brothers,“[Our intern] impressed me because we would give him a project and he would do it correctly without hassling us too much. [It’s not] that we weren’t open to questions, but he learned quickly that big firms have big resources, so he got answers himself.”

Observe the company culture. Is there a lot of gossiping going on? Do employees look stressed? Do people work together or separately? A company’s atmosphere can reflect the industry as a whole, and give you clues about whether it’s right for you.

Learn about the business. Get to know your company from the outside—its history, standing in the market, goals, clients, competitors. Reading the newspaper every day is an easy way to get a feel for the trends and current events that affect your job.

Network. Don’t hesitate to interact with coworkers whenever possible Ask them how they got their jobs, what they do, and about the pros and cons of the industry. Arrange for informational interviews to discuss jobs at the company that interest you.

Use Your Experience to Get a Job If you’d like to work at the company after graduation, make sure you stay in touch with your contacts. Send them emails with updates on relevant courses or your future plans. Even if you decide on a different career direction, you will still have an excellent source of references.

Keep a copy of any reports, articles, or presentations you worked on and create a portfolio. When you go to job interviews, make sure that you highlight your internship experience—it will set you apart from applicants with no on-the-job experience.

How to Get the Internship You Want
The fastest way to add luster to your résumé is to do an internship, but the benefits don’t stop there. By interning, you not only gain professional skills, but also gather insight into a particular industry or organizational culture, and establish connections that might lead to a job.

Human resources directors see internships as a training and testing ground for potential new employees. As one explains, “Firms are spending more time and resources to develop internship programs because it provides them with an efficient way to cultivate future employees and weed out the undesirables.”

However, before diving into the first internship you’re offered, make sure you have investigated all your options. Internships vary widely in the amount of pay or academic credit offered, the type of supervision and mentoring you receive, the length of time you are expected to work, and the amount of learning you will do.

Here are five criteria you can use to evaluate a potential internship.

Paid vs. Unpaid
Not surprisingly, the majority of paid internships are found in the world of big business. Consulting, investment banking, commercial banking, accounting, information technology, venture capital, entertainment, and marketing offer some of the highest paying internships.

Sexier industries such as entertainment and book publishing tend not to pay because so many people are clamoring to get in the door. Still, almost all industries offer some paid internships to attract talented students at an early stage in their education.

For those of you who are completely turned off at the thought of working for nothing, there are some alternatives. Increasingly, organizations are realizing that although some students are motivated by paychecks, many just want enough income to cover basic necessities. In response, many traditionally unpaid internships now come with one-time stipends of $2,500 or more to help students defray their costs of living.

If you decide against—or can’t get—a paid internship there are still opportunities to gain valuable work experience. For example, if you’re interested in politics, an unpaid internship campaigning for your local Congressman may help you establish valuable connections for your future career. Working in a hospital lab offers the opportunity to practice skills, such as blood drawing or microscopy, that will come in handy for a doctor-to-be. A future lawyer will gain understanding of a firm’s document and litigation services by working as a legal assistant.

Even if you are not paid for these internships, you’ll get connections, training, and an understanding of the field that makes the lack of pay less significant.

Credit vs. Not-for-Credit
Some colleges, hoping to steer students toward the real-world experience an internship provides, grant college credit for approved internships. Other cooperative education colleges and universities require students to do internships as part of their curriculum. Unfortunately, the majority of colleges do not award credit for internships.

Mentor-Led vs. Self-Directed
The difference here is initiative. If you think you work best when you structure, develop, and monitor your own work, then by all means do it on your own. However, if you know you want to create a certain product or learn a particular technique or technology, but don’t have the foggiest idea of how to go about achieving it, then seek guidance from a mentor.

That mentor could be your academic advisor or a professor who specializes in your field of interest. Be sure your mentor has a clear understanding of what you would like to achieve and what your time frame is, and knows how to structure an internship and track your progress throughout the project.

Term-Time vs. Summertime
Many internships are only available in the summertime. Organizations want to ensure that they have enough work to keep students busy and don’t want students to compromise the quality of their academics while interning.

However, if you’re interested in learning outside the classroom during the academic year and are confident your schoolwork won’t suffer, then look for employers who hire interns all year round.

Part-Time vs. Full-Time
Two options exist for the student who wants long-term exposure to a particular company. Your first option is to take a year or semester off from school. These types of experiences can be immensely rewarding and can provide a break from the academic world. You’ll also get a chance to refocus your career goals and align the rest of your education with those goals.

The second option is a part-time internship that extends through the academic year and summer. Part-time may not provide as clear a picture of what the daily demands are in a given profession, but chances are you’ll learn enough to assess whether or not you enjoy and feel challenged by a given job. Best of all, part-time internships don’t require you to take a year off, so you can still graduate with your class.

Steps to Obtain & Complete an Internship

1. Clarify your goals and objectives. Ask yourself, why do I want an internship? What kinds of things do I want to be doing? What skills do I want to use or learn? What skills do I already have that may be helpful in a particular type of internship? What do I hope to accomplish by the end of the internship?

2. Talk to faculty, the Career Center staff, family and mentors to assist you in clarifying your academic and professional interests. Read about fields of interest in order to refine your internship goals.

3. Receive an information packet about internships from the career center with all the necessary information to complete the entire process.

4. Talk with your academic adviser and internship coordinator from the Career Center. Discuss all the various options in regard to summer versus semester intemships, receiving credit and seeking sites.

5. In regard to discovering internship sites:

a. Faculty are great resources. Ask them about sites used previously.
b. Check out internship files and nationwide reference books in the career library, second floor Maytag Center.
c. Log into monstertrak.com. Over 2500 sites are listed!
d. Remember, almost any company or institution can benefit from an intern. Brainstorm about your “dream placement” it can become a reality! The internship coordinator at the career center can help you “create an internship”.

6. Request supervision from a faculty member. The faculty member will need to approve the internship before you register for credit, will help you in developing learning objectives, will assist you with problems during the internship, will make a site visit and will evaluate your experience with you at the end.

7. Prepare application materials. Most sites require a resume and cover letter; samples are included in the internship packet, and there are a number of excellent resources about resumes and cover letters in the career library. Ask a Career Center staff member or faculty member to critique your resume and cover letter before submission. You’ll also want to ask three professional people to be listed as references on your resumes. Note deadline dates in the application process. You may want to telephone a contact person ahead of time to express your interest and to get specific instructions before submitting your resume and cover letter. Some employers prefer that you submit your resume online.

8. Practice your interviewing skills. Be sure that you’re able to discuss your objectives and expectations, why you chose this organization, how you can help them and what they can do for you. The next step will be the actual interview, and your decision to accept or not accept the internship if it’s offered to you.

9. Make follow-up contact. If you’ve not been contacted in two weeks after sending your materials, call to reaffirm your interest and your availability to interview. Always send a thank-you following interviews.

10. In the process of securing an internship, discuss the organization’s expectations of you and what you hope to accomplish with your work supervisor. It is important that you clearly understand your responsibilities and the nature of the organization in order to develop leaming objectives which maximize learning and experience. If the organization is new to internships, make sure they will use your skills purposefully and know what you can contribute. Receive a job description if possible.

11. Register for an agreed-upon number of credits, from 1-6, by completing the specific form at the registrar’s office. Academic credit may not exceed six credits during a semester or summer without permission from the academic dean. Students are allowed up to 20 semester hours of “experiential” credit, which includes various music groups for credit, practicums on campus, student teaching, the required two x credits and internships. Internships are graded on a pass/no record basis. Internships are recorded on students’ transcripts whereas work experience is not but would be included on a student’s resume. Students may not receive academic credit for work completed “after-the-fact.” Students should register for internships prior to the start of work.

General guidelines for credit

Semester – 14 weeks

1 credit = 7 hours / week
2 credits = 8-9 hours / week
3 credits = 10-13 hours / week
4 credits = 14-16 hours / week
5 credits = 17 -19 hours / week
6 credits = 20-25 hours / week
Summer – 10 weeks

8-9 hours / week
10-13 hours / week
14-16 hours / week
17-19 hours / week
20-29 hours / week
30-40 hours / week

12. Begin work. Consider what interns and supervisors want below:

Interns: “I want a supervisor…”

who wants me to work for them.
who helps me when I am new to get acquainted with my job.
who explains to me what my job is-just what I’m expected to do.
who tells me frequently how I’m getting along.
what I do well and what I don’t do well.
who shows me how to improve.
who not only thinks of me for what I am but also for what I may become.
who listens to my ideas for making the job easier and better.
who is honest and fair.
who tells me about changes before they are made.
who has personal faith and confidence in me.
Supervisors: “I want an intern…”

who knows and likes the job.
who is always on the job unless excused.
who is cheerful, not sullen.
who gets a excited about a job well done.
who looks for a better way to do the job.
who tells the truth and is sincere.
who gripes little and looks forward.
who keeps a spirit of teamwork.
who asks questions when he or she needs help.
who tries to put himself or herself in my place every now and then.
who feels that their job is a privilege-not a right.
13. Be in regular contact with your faculty supervisor, prepare for his/her site visit and discuss any problems or issues with your faculty supervisor or internship coordinator. Attend a mid-semester reflection session on campus to share with others who are interning. Ask for an honest appraisal of your work as you conclude your internship; you will gain much from this evaluative experience with your work supervisor. You will also meet with your faculty supervisor at the end to evaluate your progress in meeting your overall objectives.

I e-mailed the person in charge of the internship at the Columbus Zoo, asking her about the going into or finished with third year deal.

Hopefully, she’ll get back to me sometime today or tomorrow. But with Thanksgiving upon us, I may not get an answer until next week.

Paid Intership Program

The educational vision of the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden is to provide quality experiences that foster a sense of wonder, share knowledge, and advocate active involvement with wildlife and wild places.

Job Description: The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden Education Department is seeking creative, enthusiastic, hardworking individuals interested in environmental education. Education interns take a leading role in environmental education for preschoolers to adults in the Zoo’s summer camps and other educational programs. Through live animal encounters, games, crafts, and Zoo hikes, interns will help children and adults develop a sense of wonder, build knowledge, and encourage active involvement with wildlife and wild places. In addition, interns will be able to work with our experienced staff of environmental educators to further develop their educational and interpretive skills. The intern position is paid with limited housing available at no charge. The forty-hour work week may include some evening and/or weekend hours.

Job Duties:
• Assist with and conduct interpretive programs for preschoolers to adults.
• Lead summer camp participants in interpretive games, songs, and dramatic play.
• Complete animal handling training and present live animal demonstrations.
• Complete interpretive training aligned with the National Association of Interpretation guidelines.
• Assist with preparations for interpretive programs and activities involved in education events.
• Assist with supervision and mentorship of teen assistants.
• Conduct on-grounds exhibit interpretation.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications: Experience and/or strong interest in working with children including preschoolers, coursework (undergraduate or graduate) in environmental education or related field, strong communication skills, willingness to learn to work with variety of animals, successful completion of a background check.|

Duration: May 31 – August 18 (includes orientation and training)

That works out perfectly, because school ends way before May and school starts like August 22nd or sometime around then…

Cincinnati Zoo internships provide college students and recent graduates with practical hands-on experience assisting the Zoo’s personnel with the daily operations of the park. Participating in the Intern Program at one of the world’s premier zoos and nationally recognized botanical gardens will provide fascinating experiences and develop your career goals by employing your skills, motivations, and interests in a professional zoological environment. This exciting and challenging atmosphere offers you the opportunity to supplement and apply your classroom knowledge.

Typically, the Zoo’s internships are 10 week, unpaid assignments. Fall, winter and summer internships are available. Exact starting dates vary for each session. A 2-3 day orientation is provided prior to beginning in the assigned work area.

Interns have the opportunity for housing across the street from the Zoo. Housing is available for a nominal fee of $100this used to be free…. Space is limited and provided on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Internship Opportunities
•Animal Care
• Business
• Development
• Environmental Education
• Horticulture/Botany
• Lindner Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife (CREW)
• Veterinary Technology

Husbandry Internship
College students commit to volunteering 120 hours and receive academic credit. Students will need to submit and additional application two months prior to the start of their semester. There is an advisor portion to be filled out.
Animal Husbandry Intern- Hands-on experience in the field of exotic animal care.
Water Quality Intern- Monitoring and correcting aquatic environments.
Environmental Intern- Research experience in creating educational graphics.

Wait…if this means I have to do it during the semester, then I can’t do it. I’d have to be in school, up in Oxford. There’s no way I can do both.

Guess it’s down to two {again}