Career-related experience can diverge from the norm

Because the traditional image of internships involves filing, answering telephones and fetching coffee, many students are opting for more uncommon internships to get career-related experience.

From costume rentals to court advocates to seat-fillers for televised awards shows, Susan Miller, career services coordinator for marketing and special events, said the variety of internships available to University of Arizona students is endless, whether students want to work in Arizona, or elsewhere in the country or world.

"You have to be really creative about (internships)," she said. "There are so many jobs out there that you would probably never think of."

Emily Delph, a psychology and criminal justice senior who has participated in numerous criminal justice internships, said that her experiences have been adventurous, to say the least.

"You really need to know what a field is all about before you get out there after graduation," Delph said.

"At the Attorney General's Office, I was a court escort," she added. "There was a fraud case and I had to explain what is going on in court to this family. The defendants will sometimes flip out. ... This one was yelling across the courtroom at the family screaming 'I hate you' and much worse."

Delph has also interned for the Tucson Police Department fraud unit and the Pima County Public Defender's Office, where she interviewed convicted Pizza Hut murderer Tom Prasertphong.

"We interviewed people for, like, if the attorney public defender needed a simple piece of info, like a name, or delivering correspondence, picking up correspondence," Delph said. "I like this because you get to help so many people. I really feel like I'm making a difference because a lot of these agencies don't have a lot of funding so without student interns they wouldn't be able to function properly."

Sociology sophomore Janelle Smith, whose internship with a lawyer's office consisted of clerical work, said she would like the next internship she does to be "wild."

"I've done some office work in the past," Smith said. "But I don't feel like I got anything out of it. I would rather do something worthwhile, something weird so I don't feel like I'm wasting my time."

On the Web site cooljobs.com, Miller found advertisements for internships both in Arizona and around the world for positions such as technical crew in a privately produced play, police officer in London and curatorial intern for the U.S. Supreme Court.

"One thing is finding a career that really makes you happy," Miller said. "This is the perfect time to explore because you can discover what you really want to do before you commit your life to a career you're going to be bored with."

Miller encouraged students who want more information on internships to check out the UA Career Fair on March 20.