When I told my mom that I was accepting a position as an intern at the Indianapolis Zoo, the first thing she said was, "Kristen, I don't think you're going to like that. It will be really hot working outside."
Most people thought my job consisted of scooping poop and feeding animals, but it was far more exciting than that. I worked for the Zoo's public relations department, and I had my own desk in an air-conditioned building.
I found out about the internship through DePauw's career opportunities database, Tiger Tracks. As I was skimming through the list of possible internships, the Indianapolis Zoo stood out because it involved a variety of responsibilities. Some of my daily tasks included photography and videography of animals and events, updating Twitter and Facebook pages and writing content for the Zoo's website and blog.
While fellow interns and students joked about performing "intern duties" such as making copies and running errands, my workload did not compare to their tasks. In my first week, I filmed a tortoise race hosted by 2013 Indianapolis 500 Winner Tony Kanaan, and I went behind the scenes with some Indianapolis Indians baseball players at a dolphin show. I was lucky to have an internship that was engaging and not as bad as some other people made theirs out to be.
One of my favorite parts of working at the Zoo was taking "field trips." I would be working in my cubical and my supervisor would come by and ask me to go behind the scenes in the animal holdings to take pictures or videos of them. On my last day, the interns even got the chance to touch an elephant and take a photo with her!
After a few weeks of work though, I was tired of waking up at six in the morning, driving downtown and getting home 12 hours later. This was a difficult transition for me because I had never worked more than a part-time job with flexible hours. Once reality had set in, I enjoyed my work-free weekends and cherished sleeping in until 8 a.m. I believe this is why internships are essential for college students. We need to experience the lifestyle of a career before choosing the path it leads us into and to gain valuable work experience that business professionals look for in students.
DePauw prepared me for this opportunity in many ways. I had experience in videography and photography from working at D3TV and taking classes like TV Production, Multimedia Story Telling and a Winter Term course, Digital Photography.
Students should be thankful when professors assign a lot of writing. Most jobs will require you to do some sort of writing.
This internship gave me a better idea of what people who study communication actually do. I would definitely recommend this opportunity to someone else. If given the chance, I would go back to the Zoo for another internship and explore a different department. Working at the Zoo made me want to volunteer there someday. The people and animals there were wonderful, and I cannot wait to go back and visit.
- Kristen Dickman is a junior from Zionsville, Ind. majoring in communication.
