Internship Experiences

  1. Home
  2. Page

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.

An internship at the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative, Washington, D.C.

In Fall 2016, I had the amazing opportunity to intern for the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative (SCRI) as part of the requirements for the Sustainable Cultural Heritage MA.

Internship experience at ThreeBond Singapore

I began my internship at ThreeBond Singapore Company on July 3rd, 2017. It was one of the most engaging and interesting experiences of my life.

ThreeBond Company gave me wonderful opportunities to work in each department: Finance, Sales, Business Operation Supply, Logistics, and Human Resources. I was excited to learn about the work.

I was concerned in the beginning that I could not contribute to the company as I was their first intern student and I did not know what work I would do. However, my amazing colleagues taught me kindly and I always had the opportunity to ask for assistance. After the internship was finished, I wrote an internship report about my experiences and a company analysis. I hope my reports will help the company to develop and improve.

Additionally, I changed my perspective, especially about finance. Before this internship, I thought I would not work in finance in the future. However, now I am interested in finance. I learned the importance of finance in organizing cash flow of the company. This ThreeBond Internship Program helped me to learn what I want to do in the future and it helped me to find myself.

Internship experience at The American Academy in Rome

In the Summer of 2017, I had the pleasure of interning at the American Academy in Rome, specifically in their extensive research library. I shared this experience with my fellow AUR resident Taneisha Tamayo, and together we assisted the library staff with shifting books on all floors of the library to reorganize the collection, leave space for certain volumes to grow, and free shelves for incoming additions.

From this internship, I have gained a deeper understanding and respect for library science, and will definitely consider working in a similar environment in the future. Being an art history major, and Taneisha an archaeology and classics major, we were very much in our element: the library’s main focus was in fact on both our majors. We even got to take home some books destined to be donated or sold. I myself managed to find the 7th edition of Gardner’s “Art Through the Ages” among these books, an art history student’s bread and butter.
 

AUR graduate takes on Event Management Internship with Rome Chamber Music Festival

AUR graduate Tiffany Burrafato (BUS ’17) has an extraordinary Event Management internship with the Rome Chamber Music Festival (http://www.romechamberfestival.org/en/) this summer, hosted in the magnificent Pietro da Cortona hall of the 17th century Palazzo Barberini. Founded and directed by American violinist Robert McDuffie, the prestigious Rome Chamber Music Festival is a celebration of classical and contemporary chamber music, and has become one of the most anticipated events on Rome’s cultural and social calendar.

Internship experience at Amnesty International

During the Spring 2017 semester I had an internship with the Policy and Lobbying Unit at the Italian Chapter of Amnesty International.
 
My duties included drafting a weekly office newsletter highlighting important European events pertaining to human rights, monitoring proceedings in the Italian Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, and assisting with translations and drawing up petitions.

This internship gave me great insight into how an international non-governmental organization functions. It was also very interesting to participate in the wide-range of Amnesty’s campaigns, petitions, research, and lobbying efforts.

Internship experience at USO Vicenza

My experience at USO Vicenza taught me a lot about myself, the military community, and the work force. I learned head on the difficulties of time management and the meaning of improvisation. We had to improvise a lot and just go with it, especially pertaining to Taco Tuesday and Troop Lunch. I learned how much the USO actually does for the military community and what it takes to see USO’s agenda through. We worked together as a team (Lisa, Rebecca, Nicole, Bree, and myself), accomplishing all the tasks that needed to be done and made the USO center run efficiently.