KEVIN B. KLAUS/Arizona Summer Wildcat Marketing senior Walker Hamilton gets the Sidewinder crowd excited during the Sunday night game against the Las Vegas 51s. Hamilton is one of the many UA students with interesting internships this summer.

While dreaming of getting the perfect job after graduation, many UA students all over the country and around the world are undertaking exciting internships this summer.

Most internships are found through campus interviews, Wildcat JobLink, Career Fairs, hundreds of internship listing Web sites, academic departments and directly through employer Web sites, according to Jack Perry, senior coordinator at Career Services.

Summer internships aren't all filing and coffee fetching, however; many UA students are working in prestigious and intriguing positions worldwide.

Robert Joseph Sexton
First-year law student

Sexton is working in a human rights office for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He was six weeks out of Iraq, where he served with the First Marine Division, when he decided he was not ready to search for a job. When he received an email from the College of Law Career Services office about the internship in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he signed up.

"The human rights office works with many issues including property law implementation, which involves monitoring and encouraging the return of refugees to homes they abandoned during the war; anti-trafficking, which seeks to eradicate the epidemic of women being trafficked here from Eastern Europe as human sexual slaves, and rule of law monitoring, which involves the implementation of a new criminal procedure code and monitoring war crime trials," Sexton said.

"I have worked in all three of these primary areas of focus within the human rights department, but I do most of my substantive work for the Rule of Law Monitor."

After spending eight years in the Marine Corps, Sexton said, "I am having the time of my life out here," even though he is without his division for the first time.

"By the end of my internship I hope to really have a decent understanding of what happened here over the past 15 years," Sexton said.

"It is such a complex story and it really is hard to figure out where the truth lies as to what really happened."

Emily Abrahams
Media arts junior

Abrahams is working in the development department at Fox Television Studios in Los Angeles, Calif., where she reads scripts and does script coverage, which is "a mini book report, but for scripts," she said.

"I am absolutely loving it here. I see celebrities all the time."

Abrahams got the job when her cousin, vice president of Fox Alternative Productions, forwarded her resume to the internship coordinator.

"I had my own interview and everything," Abrahams said. "My cousin just helped me get my foot in the door."

Abrahams also does filing, when there is not much work to do, and watches many pilot videos of new Fox television shows like "The Simple Life 2," "Method & Red," "Quintuplets" and "North Shore."

Other assignments include coming up with ideas for different types of television shows and pitching them to executives.

Abrahams admits the job is sometimes boring, but most of the time it isn't because she sees many celebrities who "just walk around the lot when they are not filming," she said. "We all eat at the same places on the lot."

Some of the celebrities Abrahams has seen include Ben Stiller and his wife Christine Taylor, Vince Vaughn, Adam Brody (from "The O.C."), Macy Gray, Jamie Foxx and Wendy Sterling (Frau Farbissina from the Austin Powers movies).

"Once the internship ends I want to get a job as a production assistant on a set somewhere because I realized writing and reading scripts is not the direction I want to go in," Abrahams said.

"I want to be on a set and be a producer for my own show. But this is still a really good experience."

Robert Hall
Second-year law student

Hall is in Albuquerque working at Modrall Sperling Law Firm, "one of the oldest and largest firms in the state" of New Mexico.

After interviewing with several organizations, Hall got the internship after accepting offers from the Arizona Solicitor's Office and the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest (ACLPI).

"The UA has prepared me well to continue learning and I have been able to make useful contributions to the work of the firm this summer," he said.

Having worked for over 20 years as an international development expert with United Nations organizations such as the World Bank, UNDP and FAO, and also for the U.S. State Department, Hall returned to college to study law.

He also worked for the Office of Arid Lands Studies at the UA for a number of years on international development programs.

As one of eight summer associates at the firm, Hall said each associate acts as "an attorney who has completed law school, passed the state bar and is hired to work for the firm."

"We are each given an Associate Advisor and a Senior Shareholder Advisor who are to offer advice, ensure that we receive manageable work assignments and resolve any issues that may arise," he said.

Hall said he is enjoying the social perks of working with attorneys at Modrall Sperling, which include being treated to lunch by the firm twice a week, entertainment at the Santa Fe Opera, Isotopes baseball games, firm barbeques and picnics, whitewater rafting and fishing trips.

"What I have come to appreciate is that the lunches and social events are also work, just in a different setting," he said.

Michelle Goldstein
Communication senior

Goldstein is working directly with the cheerleading coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Florida. She said she got the internship by "applying online, sending a resume, then going through a few phone interviews" with recruiters.

"I am enjoying myself here immensely," Goldstein said.

"This city is beautiful and people at my workplace have been very open in letting me and the other interns [be] a part of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers organization. We try to have social events, such as employee get-togethers and girls' nights out."

The internship will last throughout the football season, which ends in February.

Goldstein said she does a number of tasks that change from week to week, such as being in charge of fan mail and inputting cheerleading appearances on the Buccaneers' website.

"Right now we are working on the Junior Cheerleader Clinic, where girls 6-17 will perform at our game on Aug. 28 against the Miami Dolphins," she said.

"This is a huge event that parents and children are very excited to be a part of.

"In August, training camp will be in Orlando, which the cheerleaders will attend part-time and in groups. I will be supervising them in Orlando."

Nathan Benedict
Third-year law student

Benedict is working for Gammage and Burnham, "a medium-sized law firm with about 30 attorneys," in Phoenix, he said.

"I pretty much do 90 percent of what an actual lawyer does," Benedict said. "I write briefs, memos, letters, etc. Of course, all my work is still supervised by the real attorneys. I've been to hearings, depositions, client meetings."

After having several interviews with "decent-sized law firms in Tucson and Phoenix, Benedict said he got a call back from Gammage and Burnham. Benedict interviewed with five lawyers and, two months later, got an offer to work with them.

Gammage and Burnham made the news recently when Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader was denied a spot on the Arizona ballot on Friday.

"Nader just retained the firm on Monday, we worked all week checking out the law and the signatures, and then gave up Friday when it was clear that he just didn't have enough legit sigs to make it," Benedict said.

"Professionally, of course, we hate to lose, but I and some of the other people who were working on the case were Democrats, so I'm actually glad he didn't make the ballot."

Walker Hamilton
Marketing senior

Hamilton is currently responsible for on-field promotions for the Tucson Sidewinders at Tucson Electric Park.

"I am the person who helps out with stuff between innings," he said.

Such "stuff" includes organizing bat races, T-shirt shooters, sumo wrestling and bird races.

Hamilton got the internship through a UA Sports Marketing Association meeting, where he met Sidewinders Advertising Sales Manager Sean Smock.

After filing out an application and interviewing with Smock, Hamilton got the internship in late March.

"Mostly I'm busy during games, but when I'm not busy I do get to see some of the games," he said. "Everybody's laughing and having a good time, so it's a good atmosphere to be around."

Once the internship ends on Aug. 24, Hamilton hopes to get a sports-related job.

"I want to work in sports because it doesn't feel like a job," he said. "It doesn't feel like work because you just get to talk to people."