Internship Experiences

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AUR graduate ready for the soccer big leagues

This summer has been an exciting one for soccer fans - and, with his newly earned B.S. in Business Administration, graduate Michael Zaitz is celebrating his own soccer success working for the Major League Soccer National Sales Center (MLS-NSC) in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Internship at RvB Arts Gallery

This unique gallery, located in the heart of Rome near the Tiber River, exhibits the work of emerging Italian artists. A boring “white walls” environment? This gallery is filled with the spirit of art! The pieces on exhibit are created by artists using different techniques and media; shows include sculpture, photography, and many styles of painting. Another singularity is that the gallery cooperates with an antique store, “Antiquariato Valligiano” which exhibits rare and antique furniture mixed in with the works of art. This adds an atmosphere of comfort and increases a visitor’s immersion in the world of Art.

Internship at Galleria Lorcan O’Neill

The Gallery was established in Rome in 2003 and actively works with 25 artists. Among these artists are the internationally acclaimed, Richard Long, Tracey Emin, Anselm Kiefer, Francesco Clemente, Martin Creed, Cerith Wyn Evans and many more. The gallery is located in the city centre and inside a marvelous Roman palazzo.

I’m an Art History student with a Business of Art concentration, therefore, the gallery internship was a very fruitful and important experience for me. I had previously interned at an art newspaper and a museum, but never at a gallery. I found the environment and dynamics very different.

MediaLab Internship

Since MediaLab is a small social media company, it was a big advantage for me because I got to work directly with my boss on a day-to-day basis. It also allowed me the freedom to voice my opinions, present my ideas, and actually get to develop them. I was given a lot of responsibilities, something that many interns don’t get the chance to have in bigger businesses. This allowed me to discover a lot about myself, about how I work, and how I express myself in the business world.

Internship at the Skeletal Analysis Laboratory

In the Spring of 2018, I interned in the skeletal analysis laboratory at the Pigorini National Museum of Ethnography and Prehistory. During this internship I learned how to analyze every element of the skeleton including gender, age, and any signs of disease. Each day I had a hands-on experience studying and collecting data on 2000-year-old skeletons to find out more about ancient cultures. I recorded my data in an archive for future researchers. I loved the lab environment and appreciate how much I learned. This experience has prepared me better for the world of archaeology.

Internship at Euro-Gulf Information Centre

I had wanted to intern for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization but as a Libyan, I was not eligible because Libya is not one of the member countries. EGIC, however, turned out to be a perfect fit. The Centre began as a legal association in Rome, Italy, and draws on the expertise of scholars, policy makers, economists and members of European and Gulf civil societies to enhance inter-regional relations. As an International Relations student with a focus on Middle Eastern affairs, I was very excited about the opportunity and it was exactly what I wanted.

Internship at Summerside International Film Distribution Agency

This spring semester I decided to further enrich my undergraduate experience with an internship. A proposal by the Internship Program led to my interviewing with Summerside International—a film distribution agency—and it’s been three months since I joined the company. Working at Summerside has been an incredible opportunity to discover a side of the entertainment world that I was not aware of and provided me with a potential career path I hadn’t previously considered.

Sephardi Voices at The American University of Rome

Sephardi Voices Executive Director Henry Green and Media Director David Langer held production workshops here at the American University of Rome in 2017 and there was a pilot project to interview members of Libyan Jewish community in Italy. Rome is home to thousands of Libyan Jews who fled their country after the 1967 Arab-Israel war. The last Jew in Libya was an 80-year-old woman who left the country in 2003. “They were displaced and persecuted,” said AUR's Professor Villani (Film and Digital Media). “These are stories of people starting a new life somewhere else, stories of loss and dealing with psychological issues. Students interested in writing get lots of stories, some sad, dramatic, even tragic. But it’s an all-around positive experience. Everyone has a different, unique take on it.”

Internship experience at The Italian Banking, Insurance, and Finance Federation

My internship at The Italian Banking, Insurance, and Finance Federation (FeBAF) revolved mainly around economic and finance rather than international relations (my major), although international relations was incorporated in many aspects. Starting my internship, I was not expecting my tasks to be so heavily focused on economics, but looking back, I am grateful to have had this experience, as it brought another subject to my attention, one I’m now interested in studying. As a result of this internship experience I declared a minor in economics at the beginning of the Fall 2017 semester. During my internship, my main tasks were to translate documents, attend seminars and write summaries for FeBAF’s two newsletters - Lettera F in Italian and Spotlight in English, or carry out research on requested topics. I had various research assignments, all of which needed to be presented in English and Italian.

Internship experience at The American Academy in Rome.

During the Summer of 2017 I was offered the opportunity to intern at the American Academy of Rome. Specifically I would be assisting with placement of the incoming books and handling non-required texts in the Library.

The Library of the American Academy houses over 160,000 collections of books with a focus on Classical Studies, The Arts, and Food Studies. It has over three floors holding this vast collection of books and my main task was to manage shifting books to allow for an incoming 20,000 books.

There was plenty of shifting to do and not much time to do it. The shifting took place during August when the Library was closed to the public and needed to be done before it opened again. It was very physical work and I was constantly moving, yet at the same time it was somewhat peaceful. While interning at the American Academy I began to understand more about the type of worker I am and how I manage working under time pressure. I learned to manage my time better, for example; which project it was better to take on at what time for instance, and I also learned to set mini goals every day to make the job more satisfying and motivating. Another important skill I acquired from this internship was working as part of a team, which I know I can take with me to future jobs. While working with other people I understood that everyone has their own pace and you need to find a way to meet in the middle, which was completely new to me; I appreciated this aspect the most.