Summer is approaching at a rapid pace, and the signs are all there. The ice cream machine in Dillin Dining Hall is getting heavy use, as bleary-eyed students work on final projects and study for tests. Multicolored mats and towels decorate the constantly manicured fields, damp from the sprinklers. People sunbathe, read, and worry about their next assignment in the increasingly hot weather.
The common thought, running through the minds of all these students, is “what’s next?” From nothing at all (if we were all so lucky!), to working three jobs, students all have different plans for the summer. One way many students are spending the summer is with the sought after summer internship.
Junior Diego Arredondo, an accounting and finance double major, has special internship plans that he hopes will be fruitful. He secured an internship with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, referred to as Deloitte, a multinational accounting firm and one of the largest in the world.
“I originally had an internship there last summer, and I got it through a ‘Meet the Firms’ event here at Linfield, and so it’s essentially a meet and greet with accounting firms in the area, and I knew that a lot of people had gotten internships through it,” stated Arredondo.
Meet The Firms is an annual event series for accounting and business students, where Linfield invites accounting and business firms to set up stands. This is where Diego found Deloitte and secured his internship working in auditing. He’ll be returning there this summer to the Portland location focused on both personal and business tax accounting.
Arredondo expanded on what he’s looking forward to about the internship this summer, stating, “the people, I know a lot of people from last summer so seeing them again will be fun. Also, getting experience in tax and seeing if that’s right for me… figuring out what the rest of my career will look like.”
He hopes to secure his future at Deloitte, adding “last summer I think there were forty-two interns at Deloitte in the Portland office, and every single one got offered full time. So, hopefully that happens to me too, so I get locked into a job right out of college!”
Another Wildcat who’s interning this summer is freshman Audri Rouse, a double major in marketing and creative writing. Rouse’s father found the internship, sent her the application, and that was that.
“It’s in digital marketing, which is what I want to do after I graduate,” said Rouse. “There were a couple other opportunities I was looking at, one at a wine vineyard and another was at a summer camp.” Rouse’s job will be creating blog and social media posts for a small Washington-based marketing company called Business Inspired Solutions.
“I really enjoy writing, that’s why I’m majoring in it, I do it in my free time and for school. I like the creative freedom of it, but I also like doing it in a structure,” said Rouse. “I enjoy marketing because I get to psychoanalyze people, and be on the other side of why someone should buy something or take a service.”
Junior Grant Moen, a biochemistry and molecular biology double major and philosophy minor, took a broad yet precise approach to securing an internship. “I applied to a bunch of NSF (National Science Foundation) funded research experiences for undergraduates, about thirty, and got into a few,” said Moen. The experience he chose is located at the Jackson laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. He’ll be doing important proteomics research, or the large-scale study of proteins, on Alzheimer’s disease.
“I decided recently that I want to get a PHD and do research as a career, so this opportunity is aligned most closely with the research I want to do, which is to study neurodegenerative diseases,” said Moen.
Moen already has some experience with research, through a recent collaboration between Linfield Professor Shawn Muer and a Corvalis-based startup company. There he worked for the company under the watchful eye of Professor Muer.
The internship at Jackson Laboratory has other perks too, Moen explained. “The institute is right next to Acadia National Park, so I’ll be able to do a lot of hiking. I’ll be able to explore around a bit! Also meeting other interns and researchers, maybe getting some interviews for grad schools I want to go to.”
One consensus among all the future interns this summer is that internships are a valuable part of college.
“What I did last summer, I ended up not being super interested in. I loved the research, but the subject matter wasn’t super interesting to me. I think when you’re in college, exposing yourself to as many things as you can is so important. You’ll learn from that. It’s not like I regret doing it, it better informs you what you want to do in the future,” said Moen. “It’s a great experience. Real world experience trumps classroom experience any day. That’s the biggest thing about internships,” concluded Arredondo.
Linfield offers many opportunities when it comes to internships. Over the year, they host annual scholarship seminars and offer many in-house programs to help Wildcats with the search. So, if these programs and stories interest you, think about spending a summer interning!
Linfield offers many opportunities when it comes to internships. Over the year, they host annual scholarship seminars and offer many in-house programs to help Wildcats with the search. So, if these programs and stories interest you, think about spending a summer interning!