intern spotlights

Experience.  Connect.  Grow.

Danielle Burkhart - Pittsburg Pirates Organization How many students have the opportunity to spend a summer with a professional sports team? Not many, but between May and August of 2009, Danielle Burkhart spent the majority of her time with the Pittsburgh Pirates Organization, specifically the Pirate’s In-Game Entertainment Department.  Burkhart is a senior at Lock Haven University, majoring in Communication Media with concentrations in broadcasting and also advertising and public relations. For 14 weeks, Burkhart went to work at PNC Park on the North Shore of Pittsburgh.  This ballpark was recently built in 2002 and is an impressive state-of-the-art venue.  She spent most of her time in the control room located at the top of the ballpark.  Read more

Katie Cloud - Northwestern  Mutual Many students would consider cold calling random people difficult and would view the ‘not-so-nice’ comments that they receive in return, as somewhat discouraging.  Katie Cloud, a senior majoring in Business Administration: Management, said such experiences “teach you how to handle objection and rejections.”  Cloud spent her summer interning with Northwest Mutual located in Philadelphia.  She began her day at 7:15 a.m. and worked between eight and 12 hours per day Mondays through Fridays.  Cloud had all of the responsibilities as a full-time financial representative. She attended meetings daily starting at 10:00 a.m., and attended more meetings and consultations in the afternoon. It was Cloud’s responsibility to build her own client base via phoning during the first few weeks of the summer. Cloud worked on building the client base each day from 8:45 a.m. until her meetings at 10 a.m.   Read more

Samuel Frances-Barrot - The Washington Center The Washington Center is a nonprofit organization that provides students, from hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the world, the opportunity to be challenged, to learn and to intern in Washington, D.C.  Many of The Washington Center’s alumni now successfully work in leadership positions in the public, private and nonprofit sectors in the United States and abroad.  Dr. Stan Berard has been the liaison for The Washington Center at Lock Haven University since 2004. “The program is great for networking and making solid connections,” said Dr. Berard.  He advises students of all majors to apply for The Washington Center’s internships since every major has a policy that applies to it.  Dr. Berard handles the application process that takes place on campus.  Most of the process is now completed online, but students need to be prepared for all of the requirements of the program including, providing a writing sample, having a professional resume, and the interview process that takes place following acceptance.   Read more

Kevin Kochka - West Chester Police Department. Not every intern feels comfortable on their first day of work, especially those who work in the criminal justice system.  However, Kevin Kochka, a Lock Haven University Senior, felt right at home on his first day with the West Chester Police Department. On the first day of his internship the officers showed their interest in Kochka; asking him questions about himself and about his baseball career at Lock Haven University.  “I felt accepted as a person and as an adult. I only spoke when I felt it was appropriate,” Kochka said and explained how important respect is in this line of work.  Respect is earned only when it is given. Read more

Jesse Piccolo - CRS All of the interns featured in our internship spotlights this year have gained valuable experience, but few of them walked away with a job at their graduation. Jesse Piccolo, senior, did just that.  Piccolo, a computer information science major, worked as an intern this semester with CRS in Montoursville. The software company created SubFinder, a program that helps companies deal with absence management and substitute placement automation. Piccolo worked in quality assurance two days a week on top of his class schedule as a full-time student.  Read more

David Cummings - Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee If there’s one thing junior David Cummings learned about government work from his internship last semester, it’s that there’s always something that needs to be done. Cummings interned full time in the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee under Representative Mike Hanna and said that there was no “typical day” during his internship because “it always varies.” He was one of five interns chosen for the Legislative Fellowship Program, a paid internship that required working Monday-Friday, 9-5.   Read more

Amanda Oechler - SFS Company Most students try to fit in their one mandatory (or strongly suggested) internship before graduation, and that’s it. LHU senior Amanda Oechler is now on her fourth internship and is enjoying every minute of it. “I love going to work,” she said, despite her almost daily commute from Jersey Shore to State College. Oechler is an accounting and business student, and since she has already taken all of the courses related to her major, she now spends more time interning than she does on campus. Her current internship is with S & F Company; Oechler is one of three interns at the company’s three locations.   Read more

Kate Chorney - Philadelphia Force It is many a sports fan’s dream to get behind the scenes, talk to the players one-on-one, discuss the team with the owners, or keep a game-winning ball.  Senior Kate Chorney got to experience all of this and more during her summer 2008 internship with the Philadelphia Force, a fast-pitch softball team with games based in Allentown. Chorney, a communication media major with concentrations in advertising and public relations as well as a minor in communication studies, worked 40-hour weeks with the team all summer, earning a total of nine credits.  Read more

Christopher Welker - Pennsylvania Office of the Budget Money. It’s something everyone thinks about, especially during the current economic conditions. Everyone watches the news and waits to see what changes are being made to the government’s budget and how it will affect us. One LHU student got to spend a semester working within the government and seeing firsthand how budgets are developed. Christopher Welker, senior, spent his fall semester as an intern with Pennsylvania’s Office of the Budget, which, according to its website, “is responsible for preparing the Governor’s annual budget and implementing it after it is passed by the General Assembly and the Governor signs it into law.” Welker found this opportunity by talking to a professor about it. He applied for, and was placed in, The Harrisburg Internship Semester program, or THIS. Read more

Jessica Douglas - American-Turkish Council At a time in which the economy is one of the top concerns on Americans’ minds, one student got to work with international trade relations this summer, in hopes that good relationships with other countries will help our economy in a positive way. Jessica Douglas, a senior, worked as an intern with the American-Turkish Council (ATC) this summer in Washington, D.C. The ATC is a non-profit business association that is, according to the website, “dedicated to enhancing the promotion of U.S.-Turkish commercial, defense, technology and cultural relations.” Members of the ATC include Fortune 500, U.S. and Turkish companies, multinationals, nonprofit organizations and individuals with an interest in U.S.-Turkish relations. Douglas was placed in the program by The Washington Center for Internships. “I’m really interested in the international business aspect of things, and the relationships between countries and trade. It was pretty much a perfect fit,” she said.  Read more

Adam Roberts - Tampa Bay Buccaneers Attending practice, spending time on the field during NFL games, and talking one-on-one with their favorite football players is something most fans can only dream of. But senior Adam Roberts got to experience all these things and more with his summer internship with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Roberts spent a month with the team’s public relations department working as a liaison between the players and local media, helping reporters get interviews with players and other information for potential stories, as well as setting up press conferences. “It was a great experience,” Roberts said. “It gives me a lot of options when I leave.”  Read more

Kara Hunt - New Pig Corporation Many college students work part time jobs and know what it's like to be bossed around.  But Kara Hunt got tot spend her summer learning what it's like to be on the other end, as a manager dealing with employee problems and working with managers from other businesses.  Hunt, a senior Business Administration major, worked at New Pig Corporation this summer in the corporate sales department. Read more

Kelly Burke - Grant Wilfley Casting Working on a TV set and rubbing elbows with celebrities may seem like a glamorous job, but there is plenty of hard work and sacrifice involved, as senior Kelly Anne Burke discovered this summer.  Burke, an English major, spent the summer in Manhattan working with Grant Wilfley Casting as an unpaid casting intern. The company casts for primarily background work and extras for primetime TV shows and movies.  As Burke aspires to be a casting director or associate, the internship was the perfect way for her to get her start in the industry.  Read more Katelyn Roussos - Hermitage House Youth Services Most college students spend a good deal of time giving out advice to their peers, but for her summer internship Katelyn Ruossos really put her listening skills to good use by working with troubled kids. From May through August, Ruossos, a psychology major, worked with Hermitage House Youth Services in Cambridge Springs, PA, near her hometown of Erie. She received a stipend for her work as well as college credit.     Read more James Blankenfeld Reality TV is known for some outrageous characters, and ABC’s “Wife Swap” is no exception. While watching this show, in which two very different families swap wives for a two-week period, one can’t help but wonder where they find some of these people. The answer to this question can be found on our own campus- James Blankenfeld found them.     Read more Nate Fought To those without much photography experience, taking a photo may seem pretty easy: just point and click. But for one LHU student, photography is an art, and he got to spend the summer perfecting this art as well as many other aspects of photography that people may not think about. Nathan Fought, senior, worked as an intern this summer at Becker’s Photography in Williamsport, PA.   Read More Becca Gregg Many times while watching the news, we are just about to change the channel when something catches our attention and makes us stop. If you watched WTAE Channel 4 Action News, Pittsburgh, this summer, that something may have been Becca Gregg. Gregg was a summer intern with WTAE, the No. 22 news station in the country, which covers all of western Pennsylvania, as well as some areas of Maryland, West Virginia and Ohio. This was Gregg’s first internship.  Read more

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