Internship Deadline
Well, July 1st at Midnight is the deadline for the State Department internship I am applying for. But I am absolutely positively done with everything that needs to be done today! :D What a weight off my shoulders, finally faxed my transcripts and Financial Aid report in. Which were pretty much the only things on my agenda of things to do today -- so I spent the rest of the day fixing my iTunes and playing my game Star Trek: Online, which has taken up pretty much all my extra non-Sarah time since I got my new labtop. (PS: I know laptop is spelled with a P. I just like the nickname Labtop, cause it conjures images of my lab! mwahaha. To people who prefer to be snooty and correct me, well f*** you -- plenty of worse things people misspell for you to be correcting.)
Quick shout out to Star Trek Online: This game is AWESOME! It's a little bit of Sims, mixed with a little bit of World of Warcraft, mixed with typical Star Trek ship-battle games! You get to select your own character, and work out ridiculous details down to nose depth, amount of eyebrow protrusion, arm girth, finger length, etc. I am always bored with the number of Humans in the Star Trek universe, but went for the still generally Human-looking Trill (my favorite Star Trek species) as my character.
I'm trying to do some research into my chances of getting this AWESOME SUPER FANTASTIC internship; in doing so, I found the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington did a study on all the internships their students did in a year. Out of a student body of 42,000 -- , 4 students got positions. (The number of applicants, a major part of any useful equation - is unknown.) One student had this generically positive blurb to say:
Elsewhere on that forum it mentions somebody talked to a State Dept. official who says one year they got 3,000 the next year they got 6,000... so who knows :/ Oh Well. I *REALLY* want this, and would be ecstatic to serve in any country in the world -- or heck, Washington D.C. too of course. It could be in an Embassy, it could be an office Basement burning papers in DC. I'd be happy anywhere, just the experience! Ahhh. Add to that, of course, the possibility of meeting Secretary Clinton is pretty much an awesome possibility to imagine.
Further research: This article in Foreign Policy Magazine (which I TOTALLY want to invest in some day. Birthday gift anyone!? A subscriptioN??? Hmmmm??) ...goes on to talk about the importance of granting interns security clearance, sometimes top secret clearance. Interns responded saying they were able to read classified cables, allowing them to get a new appreciation for international affairs. Nothing "sexy" and James Bond like, but still.
After reading this article about "Transitions to Living Abroad" with advice on applying (better late than never :/) -- I think I'll go back to my application tomorrow actually and fix a thing or two, maybe polish my essay a bit more.
Quote of the Day:
Me: "Oh! Did I tell you about how the Owner of Marc's, Mark--"
Sarah: *SHOCKED EXCITED* "REEEEALLY!?"
Me: *Strange stare* "I haven't used a verb yet..."
Song of the Day: "Hook Up" by Katy Perry. Well, I found an entire unreleased album of Katy Perry's today -- and on it, among other great songs actually, was the original version of "Hook Up" AKA: "I Do Not Hook Up." It turns out that Katy Perry wrote the song, didn't use it, and Kelley Clarkson bought it and made it her own! Wow! Which is good, I think, because Katy Perry seems to screechy in this whole album. Reminds me of a combination of current poppy-Katy Perry and Regina Spektor.
Quick shout out to Star Trek Online: This game is AWESOME! It's a little bit of Sims, mixed with a little bit of World of Warcraft, mixed with typical Star Trek ship-battle games! You get to select your own character, and work out ridiculous details down to nose depth, amount of eyebrow protrusion, arm girth, finger length, etc. I am always bored with the number of Humans in the Star Trek universe, but went for the still generally Human-looking Trill (my favorite Star Trek species) as my character.I'm trying to do some research into my chances of getting this AWESOME SUPER FANTASTIC internship; in doing so, I found the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington did a study on all the internships their students did in a year. Out of a student body of 42,000 -- , 4 students got positions. (The number of applicants, a major part of any useful equation - is unknown.) One student had this generically positive blurb to say:
"I would highly recommend the internship to other students. I was given the opportunity to report on conditions within Kenya and make written recommendations to the Ambassador regarding the release of an NGO report. The internship gave me a glimpse of my future career in the Foreign Service and solidified my choice of that career path."This one message board has a discussion about the Summer 2009 internships. (Internships with the State Department are either Spring semester, Fall semester, or Summer. Summer is mainly clerical, I guess alot of their staff have summer off.) Anyway. This message board suggests that for Summer Internships, about 3,000 people apply and about half get it. The same guy did it two years earlier, and had some tips for future interns:
- Intern at the U.S. Department of State (cite)
"...I got paid the $10/hr... The main differences besides getting paid, was that as a clerical intern, I put together the phone list directory and took care of some of the more menial tasks, like taking confidential paper to the burn room (which was totally awesome!).
One big piece of advice I have is to choose to start the internship as early as possible. I chose to start on the first day available and it really put me in a leadership role when the other interns came in. The actual staff in my office did not want to repeat orientation material to the new interns, so they asked me to do it.
All in all, it was a terrific experience and I learned so much along the way. They really take care of the interns, with excursions to the Kennedy Center, White House, and Pentagon among others, and provide many opportunities to learn from Ambassadors and experts."
Elsewhere on that forum it mentions somebody talked to a State Dept. official who says one year they got 3,000 the next year they got 6,000... so who knows :/ Oh Well. I *REALLY* want this, and would be ecstatic to serve in any country in the world -- or heck, Washington D.C. too of course. It could be in an Embassy, it could be an office Basement burning papers in DC. I'd be happy anywhere, just the experience! Ahhh. Add to that, of course, the possibility of meeting Secretary Clinton is pretty much an awesome possibility to imagine.
Further research: This article in Foreign Policy Magazine (which I TOTALLY want to invest in some day. Birthday gift anyone!? A subscriptioN??? Hmmmm??) ...goes on to talk about the importance of granting interns security clearance, sometimes top secret clearance. Interns responded saying they were able to read classified cables, allowing them to get a new appreciation for international affairs. Nothing "sexy" and James Bond like, but still.
After reading this article about "Transitions to Living Abroad" with advice on applying (better late than never :/) -- I think I'll go back to my application tomorrow actually and fix a thing or two, maybe polish my essay a bit more.
Quote of the Day:
Me: "Oh! Did I tell you about how the Owner of Marc's, Mark--"
Sarah: *SHOCKED EXCITED* "REEEEALLY!?"
Me: *Strange stare* "I haven't used a verb yet..."
Song of the Day: "Hook Up" by Katy Perry. Well, I found an entire unreleased album of Katy Perry's today -- and on it, among other great songs actually, was the original version of "Hook Up" AKA: "I Do Not Hook Up." It turns out that Katy Perry wrote the song, didn't use it, and Kelley Clarkson bought it and made it her own! Wow! Which is good, I think, because Katy Perry seems to screechy in this whole album. Reminds me of a combination of current poppy-Katy Perry and Regina Spektor.
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