The Scarlet at Black, April 3, ism—page s

 

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Dishes to diplomats: spring internships ,

Editor's note:

For the iourth year in a row,
Career Services sponsored a
student internship program which
was conducted over both Christ-
mas and spring breaks. This year
19 students participated in the
internship programs“ oi them
over spring break.

The said asked iour students
who participated in internships
this past spring vacation to relate
their experiences as well as their
thoughts on the program.

Media in
the big city

by Chris Louer

Perhaps “internship” is not the
most applicable term ior the timel
spent over spring break exploring
various forms of mass media. My
break consisted of one week in
New York with Barry Ancona
('68), Who edits two trade
magazinesiVideography and
industrial Photography. I spent the
next week around the offices of the
United Press International (UPI)
bureau in Washington, D,C., which
was arranged by Peter Hackes
1'48) of NBC News.

In New York, Barry gave me a
very good survey oihow industrial
Photography and Videography are
put together, irom the early
planning stages through layout and
production, even to circulation, I
did some copy reading for both

magazines and even wrote a short i

piece for Videography about a
doctor in Louisiana who uses video
technology to help people lose
weight. 1 ieel that i came away
with‘a good grasp of how a
professionally produced magazine
is put together.

While this took up a good bit oi
time, i also had time to explore
other media in New York, Through
Barry and Peter I managed to
get private tours with executive
level guides through the New York
Times, Time, and NBC studios,
giving me a good idea oi the scale
and general structure of these
media operations.

My second week was spent in
Washington, Dc. While my in
ternship had been officially
arranged with UPI, a complete
rundown oi their operations by a
senior editor made it immediately
apparent that there were no“entry
level" jobs to be tried out. Just
observing, however, how fast
breaking news was handled proved
very interesting. While this editor
was explaining the use of UPI’s
computerscontrolled editing
facilities, a one word story from
their Supreme Court corresponr
dent came’in, indicating that the
Court had upheld Richard Nixon’s
request to have
hear his case to prohibit the use of
oi his white House tapes as en
tertainment.

Within seconds, a pre-wrltten
story which began with two lead
paragraphs followed by sup»
plemental background material
came up on the computer screen.
One of the lead paragraphs was to
be used if Nixon’s request was
upheld, the other if it was not, The
unneeded paragraph was elecs
tronically deleted, and the story
was given a high priority status,
going out nationwide within ten
minutes oi the story's break.

My last two days were spent at
the White House. My arrival at the
White House on the first day was
met with the news that the SALT
talks had just collapsed, and a
general tension pervaded that day.
My second day there was more

relaxed (I got some sun on the >

the Court ,

White House lawn), but I did get a

chance to Slip into the Oval Office .

, with a group oi photographers and
i got a couple of shots of President
Carter.

All told, I feel that with the help

of some interested and involved,

alumni, i had an invaluable ex
perience and made some valuable
acquaintances,

Making the
surgery rounds

by Edward Fry

in this day and age there is a
great deal of importance placed on
that elusive entity, success, No
matter how one defines success,
there is great pressure from
family, teachers, peers, and
oneself to succeed, The student,
somewhere along the line, has to
decide what constitutes success
and then choose the career he will
pursue in order to obtain it.
Because students become
pressured and are faced with such
important decisions, they oiten
lose sight of their goals and ob
jectives. The student begins to
wonder where he is going and what
he really wants to do. Fortunately
for the Grinnell student there is
help in obtaining answers to these
troubling questions.

Career Services oiiers Career
Preview internships as one way of
helping students iind careers that

‘ interest them. i was lucky enough
to participate in an internship over

it

NBC cameraman lin a shortnews seg

Vashin

spring break. In October, 1 applied
for an internship, stating that I was
interested in a career in medicine
t and wanted to learn more about the
clinical and research aspects.

=arrangements had been made

through Dr. William F. Hejna ('54)
to Work with Dr. Jorge O. Galante,
chairman of the Department of
Orthopedic Surgery at
Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Hospital
in Chicago.

For ten days I followed Dr.
Galante and the orthopedic
surgery residents through
surgery, rounds, conferences, and
the laboratory. 1 was very [or-
tunate to see several kinds of
operations, such as hip joint
replacements, an amputation, a
removal of the knee cap, an
operation on a herniated disk. and
a straightening of a curved spine.

 

In the operating room and when
discussing cases I was able to use

ton, D,C., on n mediavoriented internshit nrran

In February, I was notified that'

much of What I had learned in
various biology units. The fun»
damentals presented in these
courses were quite easily applied

to the complicated medical topics
I encountered,

Conferences for the residents
iwere held quite frequently and
usually were centered around one
, speciiic topic such as cerebral
palsy, discussion of individual
cases, or pediatrics. One could
really get an appreciation oi the
need to be able to think and talk
clearly, This made me realize that,
with the exception of the freshman
tutorial, the importance of clear.
concise speech is not emphasized
strongly enough atGrinnell, This is

lunfortunate because, as was ‘
illustrated in the residents’ con- ‘

ferences, the ability to com-
municate well is of tremendous
importance.

The Department oi Orthopedic
Surgery is conducting research to
develop better artificial joints, 1
was able to observe the research
from the inside out by being a
guinea pig in a study on the
stresses and strains on the knee
and the muscles of the leg in
walking and stair climbing,

The part of the internship that I
iound most interesting and
valuable was going on rounds with
Dr. Galante and the residents,
Each day we would visit the
patients in their rooms to see how
they were doing. The doctors would
change bandages, remove stitches,
write new prescriptions, explain
what they were going to do next,

«A rﬁ“‘§.‘§
“Wk, ‘ g

a

and answer any quation that the
patients had. It was interesting to
see the scientific and personal
sides of medicine coming together.

On my last day, i ran into several
students from last year’s Grinnell-
Rush Medical Studies program and
sat in on one of their classes.

Although most oi the lecture was
over my head, i was able to pick up
on some of the basic ideas irom
what i had lmrned in Organic
Chemistry and biology units.

During my internship I learned
many things about medicine and
about Grinnell. My experience has
made my interest in medicine even
greater: it was comiorting to iind
that- some of the basic concepts
presented in biology and chemistry
had been taught in such away that
they could be applied to the much
more difficult subjects in
medicine. 1 also got an ap-
preciation for the ability toicom-

 

merit on the White House lawn. Chris Lower took
ed b Career Services.

municate clearly and succinctly. i
think that opportunities like the
'Career Preview Internships can
give students a better sense or

direction in their education.

Hard work,
long hours,
mediocre pay

by Scott McMurray

Hard work, long hours, and
, mediocre pay. That about
‘ describes my initial impression oi
journalism a la the Kansas City
Star and John Wylie.

John, a Grinnell graduate of ‘75, ,i
, was my host during my internship |
with the Star over spring break. He
arrived at the Star after editing the
Scarlet and Black and pars
ticipating in a summer internship
at the Star,

Iarrived in Kansas City at three
o‘clock Saturday aiternoon. By:
4:15 we were on our way to the
’ office. In addition to serving as
, Energy and Environment
reporter, John also monitors the ,
police and tire dispatchers on,
Saturday nighls. :

That particular Saturday night
was iairly uneventful, We checked
out one hotel fire from earlier in
the day and found little worth
noting. Later, we followed up on a
knifing in the inner city. We
decided not to investigate further
when the victim was found calmly

 

this picture while in

standing in an apartment house
i lobby.

The major story'during my
week-long stay involved license}
hearings for a proposed nuclear
power plant. The two days of
hearings lasted approximately
eight hours each. Alter eight hours
of listening to experts debate the
finer points of power plant
financing, I could barely write my
name. let alone a coherent story.

John, however, had an early
evening deadline to meet. I was
amamd at his ability to sort
through eight hours worth oi notes
and pick out the important points.
After such a day, it was not
unusual for us to arrive home for
dinner between a and 9 pm.

John's cosworkers felt it
necessary to repeatedly inform me
that. “we‘re not all like that. Some
oi us actually only work a iorty

hour week.“

,‘,

The long hours and hard work
have not been without their reward
ior John. During the period of my!»
internship he received a plaque
from the EnVlronmental
Protection Agency for his coverage
of pesticide misuse in Kansas. He
has also been nominated for a
Pulitzer Prize concerning the same
story.

Star policy didn't allow me to
write ior the paper during my stay.
But I did write a mockup story
which John then critiqued. I felt
that my Grinnell background
served me well, once i had h
iniormed oi such journalistic
phenomena as the “strong lead”
and the one sentence paragraph.
Everything considered, 1 was
given a revealing look at th}
rewards possible in journalism.

Culinary
internship

by Mark bloom

My internship was an unusual
one. I've been an amateur chef for
a long time, and wanted to see how
a restaurant really worked.

Career Services fixed me up with
Stuart Mace, who runs a
restaurant called Toklat in A
croft, Colorado, a small town just
south oi Aspen. Toklat is not an
ordinary kind oi place; they have
only one seating oi 24 each night. ‘
The dinner starts at 8:15, with
“hospitality hour" when drinks arr

l served.

The food is not the only
highlight; guests also get 'a good
taste of how life was on the frons
tier. The tables hang on poles from
the ceiling, dogsleds are used as
couches, and guests may visit the
four Alaskan huskies after eating if
they wish. The evening is more
than justa mealiit is a trip into an
entirely different way of life. ‘

I was put to work as soon as I
arrived. The Maces are a hard-
working ramily, and they expect a
lot out of their help. A wedd
reception was scheduled for e
day l arrived, so two hours after i
got there I was chopping ham and
washing dishes. Since I was there
to learn, the Maces rotated me
among all oi the areas of work. At
one time or anodier I bartended,
cooked, washed more dishes than I
care to think about, waited tables,
and cleaned up. They demanded a
lot from me—l was expected to
learn quickly and not repea
mistakes. Toklat has a very high
standard of quality, and it was
challenging to meet this standa

Some people have asked me
Grinnell prepared me in any way
for my time at Toklat. In some
ways, Iwould say yes. Grinnell has
taught me much about dealing with
people, and when working in a
small intense kitchen area where
often every minute counts, this is a
definite asset. Grinnell has no
courses designed to teach par-
ticular skills needed in restaurant
work, but it .did give me a good
preparation ior working with the
diverse kinds of people I met 63‘
Toklat.

My internship involved long
hours, hard work, no pay, and
moments of frustration when I ,
despaired of ever learning how a
do anything right. Would I do it
again? You can be sure of it. I
learned more in two Weeks than in
a semester here. I would recom-
mend my internship to anyone
interested in cooking, and Toklat to
anyone interested in a fantastic
eating experience.

 

