 "Photo: Buddy Burkhalter")
When National Public Radio broadcast producers need a quirky song about the price of gasoline or the anniversary of Sputnik's launch, the radio network's music librarian is responsible for finding the perfect track somewhere among the tens of thousands of CDs in their collection.
This summer, UT information studies graduate student Geoff Willard gets to help.
"A producer might need a song to go with a story about the inventor of the Pringles can dying," Willard said. "His deadline might be in 30 minutes, so in 30 minutes I have to give him three songs related to that. It's actually really fun. It requires some creativity."
Willard is spending the summer in Washington, D.C., as an intern for NPR. Every year, all of the interns gather to create an "Intern Edition" radio show. This year's goes online today on NPR's Web site.
Robert Vega, the employer relations coordinator for UT's Liberal Arts Career Services, said internships such as Willard's are invaluable for students who need to develop skills and build networks and resumes.
"The primary goal of any internship is to learn about a profession in a way that allows students to test drive a potential career path," Vega said. "They also develop professional skill sets that are relevant to the areas they plan to apply to and get to explore the structure of a work environment."
For students who prefer to stay local, Austin has much to offer. Vega said internships in Austin range from competitive positions with hundreds of applicants to less-in-demand small research projects or nonprofit organizations.
Journalism junior Meagan Maulsby is an intern for the Austin Film Festival, a job she said currently consists of "just watching a lot of movies." Maulsby rates films to help determine which ones will screen at the festival.
"We're receiving thousands of movies from around the world," Maulsby said. "We see more terrible movies than we do excellent movies, but there are some that are really, really good."
Maulsby said the task is good experience for what she hopes to do in the future: write about films for magazines. When the screening ends and the festival begins on Oct. 16, she will do whatever small or large tasks need to be completed, she said.
Retail merchandising senior Crystal Ting said her internship for Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury department store, has allowed her to travel with the company's buyer to select merchandise and to meet Mary-Kate Olsen. However, many job duties deal more with profit margins than fashion.
"People assume that because I work at Bergdorf, it's really glamorous, but it's not," Ting said. "There's a lot of computer work and a lot of spreadsheets, and sometimes it's tiring, but I think all internships are like that."
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