Tag Archives: vermont

APPLY TODAY for one of these Midd-friendly Winter Term Internships!

For more information about one of these opportunities, see MOJO.

Job Title	Organization	Deadline
Assistant to the Executive Director — Winter Term Intern	Vermont Institute on the Caribbean acting for Colegio Mundo Feliz	10/30/2009
Winter Term ’10 Intern and Advocate	WomenSafe	10/15/2009
Winter Term ’10 EMT-B Course participant	University of Vermont, IREMS	10/16/2009
Winter Term ’10 Intern and Assistant to Program Coordinator	Vermont Adaptive Ski & Sports	10/16/2009
Winter Term ’10 World Camp Volunteer	World Camp, Inc.	10/16/2009
Winter Term Charter House Emergency Shelter Intern	Middlebury Transitional Care Coalition/Charter House	10/16/2009
Winter Term Financial Stability/Employer based AEITC project	United Way of Addison County	10/16/2009
Winter Term Hunger Action intern	Presbytery of Philadelphia	10/16/2009
Winter Term Intern	Center for Biological Diversity	10/16/2009
Winter Term Intern – Shelter Assistant	John Graham Shelter	10/16/2009
Winter Term Practicum: Challenges to Peacebuilding–Sierra Leone	Monterey Institute of International Studies	10/16/2009
Winter Term Sustainability Teaching Intern	New Canaan Country School	10/16/2009
Winter Term Training: Conservation Leadership Practicum (CLP)	Monterey Institute of International Studies	10/19/2009
Winter Term: Development Project Management Institute (DPMI)	Monterey Institute of International Studies	10/16/2009
Research Analyst Winter Term Intern	Marketing Evolution	10/17/2009
Winter Term ’10 Intern	Caromont Farm	10/17/2009
Winter Term Intern: Programs coordinator	Stride: The Wright Foundation for Female Athletes	10/17/2009
Democracy for America Internship (Winter or Summer)	Democracy For America	10/19/2009
Winter Term Programming Intern	WMUD 89.3	10/20/2009
Winter Term ’10 Intern	National US Arab Chamber of Commerce	10/23/2009

Intern Profile

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Abigail Leathe ‘11

WomenSafe Summer Internship

This past summer, I interned at WomenSafe in Middlebury. WomenSafe is a nonprofit organization that works toward the elimination of physical, sexual, and emotional violence against women and their children through direct service, education, and social change. WomenSafe provides legal and medical advocacy, emotional support, safety planning, crisis intervention, and problem solving assistance. Through community education and outreach, WomenSafe seeks to raise awareness about domestic and sexual violence.

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Winter Term Internship Postings

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Below is a summary of the Winter Term ’10 internships posted on MOJO as of this morning, Sept. 7, 2009. For more information about an opportunity, or to see more listings, visit www.middmojo.com.

Job Title	Employer	Deadline
Winter Term ’10 EMT-B Course participant	University of Vermont, IREMS	10/16/2009
Winter Term ’10 General Associate Intern	Roosevelt Institution	10/9/2009
Winter Term ’10 Intern	National US Arab Chamber of Commerce	10/9/2009
Winter Term ’10 Intern	New England Review	10/9/2009
Winter Term ’10 Intern	Porter Hospital	10/9/2009
Winter Term ’10 Publishing Intern	U.S. Department of Education (DOE)	10/9/2009
Winter Term ’10 World Camp Volunteer Program	World Camp, Inc.	10/9/2009
Winter Term ’10: Youth and Family Intern	Counseling Service of Addison County	10/1/2009
Winter Term – Green Chemistry Program Intern	Green Chemistry Program	10/9/2009
Winter Term 2010 – Finance Intern (Hedge Funds)	RBC Capital Markets Corp., Alternative Assets Group	10/9/2009
Winter Term 2010 – Production Intern	Bunim-Murray Productions	10/9/2009
Winter Term 2010 Intern	EnerNOC, Inc.	10/9/2009
Winter Term 2010- Literary Publicity Department intern	PICADOR	9/18/2009
Winter Term 2010- Public Relations Internship	Strategic Group	10/9/2009
Winter Term 2010: US District Court, Boston	United States District Court, Boston, MA, Honorable Judge Mark Wolf	10/9/2009
Winter Term Development Intern (Film)	GEORGEVILLE FILMS/CBS STUDIOS	10/9/2009
Winter Term Intern	Julien J. Studley, Inc.	10/9/2009
Winter Term Intern	Oasis Center	10/10/2009
Winter Term Intern – Shelter Assistant	John Graham Shelter	10/9/2009
Winter Term Programming Intern	WMUD 89.3	10/10/2009
Winter Term Teaching Intern-ESL/ESOL	Biblioteca David Kitson	10/9/2009

* MOJO is a resource available to current Middlebury students only. Middlebury alumni, please visit http://www.middlebury.edu/administration/cso/alumni/ for resources available to you.

Vermont Frost Heaves

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Vermont Frost Heaves

Rosalind Vara, 2010

Throughout the course of January I worked for the Vermont Frost Heaves, doing a variety of different writing assignments as needed. The Frost Heaves are a professional basketball in their third season in Vermont. Alex Wolff, a senior writer at Sports Illustrated and a resident of Cornwall, Vermont established the team in 2005 and worked as the team’s General Manager and public relations liaison until this season when he began to distance himself from the team in an effort to do more work at SI. With Alex less involved the team needed someone who could write large portions of the team’s yearbook, in addition to game previews and summaries – this became my internship. I was able to complete the work from campus and communicated with my supervisor through emails and the telephone.

During the internship I wrote three different types of articles for the team’s website and yearbook. Much of the work I did was in the form of player and coach biographies for the yearbook and website. These pieces required research from a variety of online databases as well as communication with both the player and the team’s head coach. Much of the information used for the biographies was found in NCAA archives, college websites and databases like www.eurobasket.com or www.asiabasket.com – websites that contain statistics and information about players who played overseas in Europe (www.eurobasket.com), Asia (www.asiabasket.com) or South American (www.sabasket.com). The biographies were only about three hundred words each, and are posted online on the team’s website (www.vermontfrostheaves.com) and printed in their yearbooks.

I also did some other short pieces for the yearbook, including a “Where are they now?” component where I conducted research online to find where former Frost Heave players were now. I used online databases to figure out if they were playing overseas or with another professional basketball team, or like some, had retired and held other jobs.

In addition to player and coach biographies I also wrote many of the team’s game summaries. Unfortunately my own basketball schedule at Middlebury College conflicted with a few Frost Heave games, so I was unable to cover all of them. When I was assigned a game, I watched the webcast on the team’s website and in addition to taking my own notes, I utilized the live-statistics feature on the league’s website. Following the conclusion of the game I had 20-30 minutes to file the story and send an email to my supervisor, the team’s general manager, Mike Healey. Mike would then read over the piece, make editorial changes, post the summary on the team’s website and send it out to local media. The summaries were part press release, part newspaper article as they had to be appropriate for the website, and for local newspapers as well.

Finally I was also in charge of writing some game previews that were printed in game day publications available at the games and a few of which were published online. These were simple, concise articles comprised of information gathered from the opponents website.

After completing my internship I realized that the work I produced was much less important than the connections I made and the relationships I built with Alex Wolff and Mike Healey. When I graduated from high school I knew there were two possible career paths for me – journalism, whether it had to do with sports or not, and some sort of environmental profession involving field work. For the past two summers I have worked for the park service conducting field research and this fall I realized that I hadn’t done anything to increase my journalism prospects. This internship was essential in establishing connections and references in the world of journalism.

That said, the assignments, while basic, also expanded my horizons in a journalism sense. While I have written extensively for Vermont newspapers I have never written anything on such a tight deadline. It takes a different approach to cover a game and then file in 20 minutes – one that requires you write and summarize the game in your head almost before it is complete. In addition, writing player biographies also poses a certain challenge, as they must be concise, creative and informational, and only a few hundred words.

I do wish that I had been more involved with the website as Alex Wolff and I had discussed in our initial meeting. However, I also realized that because I was only going to be around for such a short portion of their season it didn’t really make sense to teach me everything. Perhaps had I been able to work with them for a longer period of time I could have been more involved with the inner workings of the system. Additionally, it was frustrating that my personal basketball schedule conflicted with many of Vermont’s games and thus I was forced to watch all the games online and was never actually able to attend them in person.

Overall, the internship was definitely a worthwhile experience, I only wish that it could have been longer and thus I could have gotten more involved. I was amazed at how much leeway Mike and Alex gave me and how much they trusted my ability to complete the articles they assigned and how understanding they were of my basketball schedule and academic commitments.

Contact the Career Services Office for more information on this internship.

Vergennes Animal Hospital

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Vergennes Animal Hospital

Joleen Rafaelle Soares, 2009

With an aspiration of becoming a refined and renowned veterinarian in the future, it was nothing but ideal to seek out an internship working with an animal hospital. Initially I must admit, upon arrival to the Vergennes Animal Hospital, I was a bit shy and nervous. Not only was this my first time “behind the scenes” of an animal hospital, but this was also my very first internship. I went into this experience with an open mind and with little or no “real” expectations for the hospital. The sheer fact that I was going to be at this institution for a whole month was enough to bring me at ease. Little did I know the density of knowledge, in addition to the lasting relationships that I would form with these doctors as well as the institution itself.

On the first day there was no formal introduction. Instead, I was arbitrarily placed with one of the doctors who had appointments that day, a Dr. Peddie. I was allowed to observe him and his assistant as they tended to their patients and talked with their owners. Being the first doctor I met, a very strong student-mentor bond was created between me and Dr. Peddie. As the week progressed, initially I found it somewhat unnerving whenever he was out for the day, as is common amongst these doctors as they all work part-time or rather on rotations. However, considering this absence of formality, I was able to essentially float around the hospital and venture into different areas that I might find interesting as well as create a multitude of mentoring relationships with all the doctors at the hospital as the month moved forward. This lack of rigidity played in my favour and made this experience that more enjoyable as well as educational as I was able to interact with everyone in the hospital equally.

Working there brought forth the realization that there were a lot more people “behind the scenes” than I had ever imagined. Within this realization a kind of challenging task of getting to know everyone presented itself and kept me upbeat throughout the experience. The staff consisted of: receptionists, veterinary technicians, doctors, kennel assistants and the administrative staff and each person was different; even the style in which seemingly routine surgeries varied from doctor to doctor. I also realized that the behaviors of the doctors were catered according to the nature of the clients, as well as the pets. For instance, some clients were very familiar with the importance and nature of vaccinations such that thorough explanations were not as crucial and some pets were not as comfortable as others when in the examination room and so necessary precautions were taken such as the use of muzzles for dogs and leather gloves for cats.

On my first day I witnessed an unimaginable amount of surgeries: Two spays-one dog and one cat- and the removal of a huge, almost 9lb, tumour from the hind region of a dog; I was actually invited into the surgery room to stand and watch! I saw more and more surgeries as the month progressed inclusive of more spays and neuters, an ear ablation surgery and ophthalmic surgery (removal of an eye) to give you an example. I have seen so many spays performed that I am confident in saying that I could probably perform one on my own, with supervision of course. Towards the end of the month, I was even invited to “scrub in” for an exploratory surgery and that by far was one of my most memorable experiences at the hospital. Another unforgettable experience occurred the day I went on-site with the large animal doctor, Dr. Klopfenstein, and I got to feel the insides of a cow through a surgical opening on her abdomen!

Although surgeries were fun to watch that was not all I was involved in. As I mentioned before, I accompanied the doctors to any appointments they might have had during the hours I was there. There I helped accordingly; welcoming the owners, drawing up vaccines for the pets, playing with/distracting the pets for their vaccinations, handing out treats and many other odd, yet necessary jobs. The veterinary technicians were not without needing my assistance as well with X-rays taking, clipping of nails and generally keeping an eye on the animals when they came out of surgery. I was also provided with a crash course in ordering supplies and setting up appointments as well as handling call backs. My knowledge on the inner workings of an animal hospital has definitely increased and I learnt about the prevalence of certain diseases such as the heartworm disease and the intensity of it symptoms and treatment. I learnt about a wide array of medicines, sutures, closing patterns and instruments as well as specific diets that the animals can be put on.

However, one should be aware that with the good comes the bad, or rather in this case, the realizations of one’s limits. The greatest thing I struggled with was the issue of euthanasia. I was allowed to witness one case and it was difficult to contain my emotions as I saw the intensity of grief it brought this elderly man to say goodbye to his pet cat. Afterwards I spoke to one of the doctors, Dr, Basol, about the necessity of this procedure. He shared with me that as pet owners we have the responsibility in deciding whether euthanasia is the right choice to make. It was quite the experience for me and since then could not bear to witness another one during the rest of my time spent at the hospital. I am still unsure about where I stand with this topic, but I hope I will grow in emotional strength in order to perform this procedure if clients desire it for their pets. There were also days with not as much activity as others. On these days I got to learn more about the doctors and their respective paths to becoming doctors of veterinary medicine, DVM.

Overall, this internship had a very positive and powerful influence on my life. It created an even stronger self-assurance in the career choice I have decided to pursue. Solely on my experience on the first day on the job, I was certain that this was the lifestyle for me; it just fit. There are a number of valuable things that I will take away from this experience as well areas of study that I never before considered learning about. For example I now have a new interest in learning about animal dentistry so that I will be adept in performing dental check-ups on pets. Anesthesiology and chiropractics are other areas of interest that developed while at this internship. I also discovered that I would rather be a well-rounded physician/surgeon rather that specifying in some area of surgery, such as cardiology; continuous surgeries can be tedious.

Diversity in treatment is fun and one thing I learnt and appreciated from this institution, as I watched the doctors check textbooks, help each other in surgery and in the reading of X-rays, is that we continue to learn from each other, in and outside of our specific job locations, seeing that the techniques become more difficult and surgeries become more specific and less invasive. As I set out into the real world, I am grateful to have had this experience near the end of my undergraduate time at Middlebury College and I eagerly await the new experiences that are forth coming, now that I am even more prepared and more confident in becoming a certified DVM.

Contact the Career Services Office for more information on this internship.

Craig Capital Corporation

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Craig Capital Corporation

Linzhi Shao, 2010

I had a private equity internship at Craig Capital Corporation in Burlington during the J-term. This internship was offered by Dan Bryan, alum of Middlebury College. It was a great opportunity for me because I had always enjoyed conducting research and analysis of industries and companies. Since private equity firms usually do not offer internships to undergraduates, I treasured this great opportunity and made the best use of it to learn about the deal process of private equity.

Craig Capital Corporation differs from many other private equity firms in the way that it adopts a “contrarian investment philosophy.” Private equity firms that invest in growth companies usually prefer industries that are experiencing fast growth. However, Craig Capital invests in companies that are underappreciated probably because they are in out-of-favor industries or missing a crucial member of senior management. As current economic recession forces a lot of good companies to experience great difficulties in running business and to put themselves on sale at low price, there are more targets in the market that Craig Capital can buy at reasonable purchase price multiples.

On the first day of my internship, I was given a book to read – Pat Dorsey’s “That Builds Wealth”, since it is the strategy of searching for “economic moats” described in this book that has been guiding Craig Capital in making profitable investments in the past. Economic moats refer to a company’s ability to maintain competitive advantages in order to prevent its competitors from taking its profits and market share in the long run. This is a very important concept and the first factor to consider when deciding whether a company is a good buy. I finished the book within two days and used what I learned from the book in my industry and company analysis. I first looked at the company’s historical performance of return on invested capital. If the company has historically generated high EBITDA margin, return on assets, return on equity and return on invested capital, then there is a possibility that the company in question has some economic moats. The next step is to dig into the company’s business model and the industry dynamics to find out whether the company has economic moats and how sustainable these moats are in the long run. Some examples of economics moats are intellectual properties and patents, high switching costs, large network effect, and cost advantages. These steps gave me a very clear and organized framework whenever I was asked to analyze the attractiveness of a company.

After I found a company with economic moats and future growth potential, the next important step is to create a LBO model, from which we can find the internal rate of return (IRR) to see whether investing in this company can generate decent returns. The process of learning how to build a LBO model is one of the greatest lessons learned from my internship, as my financial modeling skills were largely enhanced. Although I took Corporate Finance and Accounting at Middlebury in the first semester of my sophomore year, I did not have many chances of practicing my accounting skills and learning financial modeling before I interned at Craig Capital Corporation. As financial modeling skills are crucial to any finance jobs, I spared no effort in learning LBO models from scratch. When I first played with the models that Dan created for a previous portfolio company, I was amazed by the complexity of the model and unsure whether I could create a similar one for a new company. With Dan’s guidance, I first built the three financial statements by copying the actual data from the offering memorandum to Excel sheets, i.e., income statement, balance sheet, and then cash flow. Then based on current economic situation and my forecast of industry trend, I created assumptions for the company’s future earnings / costs structure and operating efficiency, and then made forecast for the company’s financial statements in the next five years. Then I built in debt repayment schedules, sources and uses of funds and pro forma balance sheets. Initially my balance sheet was always not balanced and I couldn’t find out the reason. Then Dan taught me a method of comparing the items in balance sheet with those in cash flow statement in a particular year to find out the reason of imbalance. Under Dan’s guidance, I finally created a complete LBO model, which was then used by Craig Capital to bid for the company. It gave me tremendous satisfaction when my hard work made a very important contribution to the deal.

In the last week of my internship, I learned how to find a deal that suits the firm’s investment criteria. I was given numerous websites where companies for sale were listed. If the company has at least $4 billion EBITDA, then I looked at its description to see whether it has any competitive advantages, a strong market position, products and services with relatively stable demand, moderate capital expenditure requirement and a reasonable purchase price multiple. I collected a list of twenty companies which satisfied at least two of the abovementioned acquisition criteria and gave the list to Dan. We then had a discussion about the companies on my list. We eventually decided to pursue further interest in only three companies in my list. I realized that it is indeed not an easy process of finding a suitable deal.

This internship provides me with wonderful opportunities to understand a wide range of industries and further enhances my interest in private equity. I have done my best to learn and contribute. I firmly believe that the market research and financial modeling skills obtained from this internship provide a great platform for me to pursue my career in the finance industry.

Contact the Career Services Office for more information on this internship.

Population Media Center

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Population Media Center

Ioana Literat, 2009

During the month of January 2009 I interned at a media organization in South Burlington (Shelburne) called Population Media Center. I was very much interested in the type of work this organization does, because during the spring semester I will be completing my honors thesis on the use of entertainment-education for positive social change in developing countries, and this is exactly the field that PMC has been a pioneer in for the past 10 years.

Specifically, what PMC does is engineer partnerships between local broadcasters (producers, actors, directors, writers) in developing countries and stakeholder organizations like the UN, UNFPA, EngenderHealth, Amnesty, the Gates Foundation etc – who provide the necessary funding – in order to produce social content radio and television dramas that tackle critical issues such as reproductive health, gender violence, literacy, family planning, and so on.

The process starts with a comprehensive formative research, identifying the social issues that are most relevant in the country selected, and which can vary from female genital mutilation (FGM) in Sudan to child labor in The Philippines to abortion rights in Brazil. Then, PMC comes up with a detailed proposal, which includes the outline of the project, the issues of concern and a preliminary budget and sends it to organizations working in the respective fields. They have a huge database of sponsors and donors, so they are able to direct their proposals to the ones that are most likely to support such projects, or that have financed similar initiatives in the past.

After the proposal has been approved, the country directors (PMC has overseas offices with local staff in each of the countries it works in) begin the recruiting process, and then train the selected writers in the Sabido methodology, which is the core of the entertainment-education approach. Specifically, this methodology, developed by Miguel Sabido in Mexico in the 80s, addresses critical social issues by integrating them into long-running radio or television series, whose storylines are purposefully crafted to reflect choices and consequences surrounding controversial or grave issues. The method makes use of positive, negative and transitional characters, whom the audience can get build a personal relationship with over the course of the series, to send out positive messages that aim to stimulate behavioral change. For instance, in a series about female genital mutilation in Ethiopia, the mother of the main character starts out by being a fervent proponent of FGM, but once she sees the adverse consequences this procedure has had on girls’ health in the community, by the end of the series, she decides not to do it to her daughter and to raise awareness within her village about the possible risks of the procedure. Thus, a pillar of this methodology is its long-running serial format, which permits a deeper audience involvement and, due to the series’ consumption as part of the audience’s daily routine, is more efficient in encouraging positive behavioral change.

Finally, each radio or television project is followed by a highly comprehensive qualitative and quantitative evaluation, assessing its efficiency as a tool for behavioral change. This evaluation is adapted to the nature of the project, but it usually involves a statistical survey of listenership/viewership, an assessment of the knowledge acquired as a result of the series (e.g. how many listeners vs. non-listeners now know that you have to use a condom not to get AIDS, etc), and various interviews and focus groups, which often contain unconventional assessment strategies, like pictorial feedback (with “before” and “after” drawings). For specific series though, PMC also collaborates with health service providers and community leaders to measure the direct impact of the program. For instance, following a program on family planning in Nigeria, new users of family planning services had to fill out an on-site exit survey at the clinic, indicating what prompted them to seek out these services – in this case, for example, more than 60% of the clinic visitors indicated that it was PMC’s radio program that motivated them to come to the clinic.

In my capacity as intern, I mostly worked in the research department and the communications department. Actually I don’t know if I should even refer to them as departments, because the whole staff at the Shelburne HQ was 8 people in total, so I was working directly for the Research Director and the Director of Communications. For my research responsibilities, I compiled reports about the situation of various social issues in the countries that PMC is currently expanding to (Sierra Leone, Fiji, Nicaragua), for the formative research component used to assess the specific needs in each country. I also researched possible donors, and the humanitarian work that they have done in this area in the past, helping to identify possible recipients of the proposals I helped draft.

For the communications department, I wrote a large number of articles and reports for the web, as well as for PMC’s internal and external publications and newsletters, an activity which I thoroughly enjoyed because it familiarized me with the ins and outs of the production and evaluation processes. In order to write these articles, I had to read country reports from the overseas directors, interviews with the writers, focus group assessments, episode scripts, qualitative and quantitative evaluations, and so on, providing me with an inside look at the application of the Sabido methodology in practice.

Making use of my video editing skills, I also digitized some footage and reorganized their video library, preparing to make a promotional video that they can show to possible sponsors, which is a long-term project that I will complete along with my thesis in the spring. This proved to be very valuable help for them, because they had been looking for someone who could do this, since it will help them a lot with securing funding, and they have a lot of very poignant footage from the countries that they work in, which will surely give sponsors a good idea of the kind of work they do.

I think I performed really well during my internship – everybody really liked me and they were very very thankful for my help. Since the staff at the HQ is rather small and therefore have a lot of responsibilities, they were very pleased to have some extra help, and were thoroughly impressed by the quality of my work, praising my writing and my research skills. I am also very satisfied with my performance, because I feel I have been given the chance to put my best skills to use, and I do think that my writing and research skills are among my strongest points. At the end of my internship, they organized a little goodbye party for me, which was very impressive and touching, and they had cake for me, and gave me a nice gift and a card (which they had written in Romanian!!! so sweet!) which made me really really happy. They also said we will keep in touch and that I should let them know if I need a job after graduation, and that they will help me out with the research for my thesis. They said I can use all their documents and reports and I now have access to all their program evaluations, scripts, proposals, reports etc, which will undoubtedly prove to be an enormous advantage in writing my thesis, since PMC is the only organization in the U.S. that does the kind of work I am writing about.

Contact the Career Services Office for more information on this internship.

Vermont Public Radio

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Vermont Public Radio

Julia Hurvich, 2008.5

Listen to the VPR report here: Vermont Public Radio- IBM Layoffs (Vermont Edition)

Over the past month at Vermont Public Radio, my work as an intern proved quite valuable, and my tasks and experiences spanned a variety of different aspects of radio production. I worked on Vermont Edition, the daily news magazine program hosted by Jane Lindholm which airs from 12:00-1:00pm on weekdays. I worked with Jane as well as the other members of the production team, including Sarah Ashworth, Patti Daniels, Tim Johnson and Chris Alberteen. As an intern, I was given the opportunity to explore all aspects of the show’s construction, from pre-production content research and scheduling, to interviewing guests, recording two ways and even to post production work in sound editing and web content management. Coming into the situation with little to no experience in radio journalism, I feel I have gained a comprehensive understanding of the day to day process of what its like to produce a quality local news program.

The guidance I received under producers Sarah Ashworth and Patti Daniels and Vermont Edition host Jane Lindhold were incredibly valuable. They shared with me their experience, expertise and stories and helped me through my daily workdays. I never felt like I was being asked to do classic intern busy work such as Xeroxing or making coffee. They included me as part of their team; I participated in conference calls, sat in during broadcasts and interviews, went out and did field recordings, and helped form ideas and content for programming.

I was surprised and pleased to discover variety of responsibilities I was given. From scouring over local newspapers to going out into the streets of Burlington to get interviews and sound bytes, I feel the job forced me to engage with the community, and I reached a level of understanding and awareness of Vermont that I never experienced in the sequestered, and sometimes isolated world of the Middlebury community.I learned about the inside workings of radio production, as well as what was going on in the world around me. It forced me to answer questions about relevancy, interest, and awareness in a way I never had before.

During the very first program I sat in on, I learned how quickly a show could change from moment to moment. President of Vermont Public Radio, Mark Vogelzang suddenly announced his resignation, effective February 1^st and named Robin Turnau as the new President and CEO. There had been another show planned for that day, but as soon as the news broke, the production team made some fast last minute changes, wrote a script, and ushered in the guests. After the show aired, I sat in on the daily de-briefing phone conference, which takes place after every show. Patti, Sarah and Jane call producer Susan Keese in the Manchester studio and analyze the day’s program – going over strong and weak points of the program, the quality of the guest, the listener call in responses, as well as what went well and what could have been improved both from the producers perspective and Jane’s. I learned to stay focused on the show as it aired, while completing whatever other task I had been assigned, so I could add my own opinions into the conversation – which were regularly called on.

Sitting in the studio during the live broadcast, I saw how quickly and efficiently the producer works with the engineers, the phone operator and Jane – the host. Throughout the show, Jane is in the studio with the guest or in the studio while talking to the guest who may be calling in from another studio. The producer is in constant communication with Jane by way of instant messenger. The audio engineer adjusts the levels of the studio mics as well as the remote studios or other guests who may be elsewhere, and then coordinates all of the different sound and digital components of the show – including advertisements, transitional music, and other sound bytes and pre-recorded segments that might be included. Tim operates the phone, judging quickly who will make a good contribution to the show, receiving calls and putting people on hold with quick turnover to maximize efficiency. All of these elements are timed to the minute in the script – which the producer hands out to everyone at the top of the show.

I assisted with a remote broadcast from the State House in Montpelier as the new legislature convened. I got to witness the amount of preparation and set up required for a very brief interview. It was exciting to be a part of the news coverage for the day, as I had never been to the statehouse before. The day came to an end with a nice staff lunch at a restaurant in Montpelier with Jane, Patti, and executive producer and Vice President of news John VanHoesen. This provided a nice opportunity to socialize a little with the people I work with.

The project I was able to work on most extensively was a B segment which aired on Wednesday January 21^stabout a non-profit organization and annual event called Ski for Heat. I contacted the founder of the non-profit organization, and pre-interviewed her over the phone. Based on some background research and my interview with her, I wrote a script for the interview, which Sarah edited, and which I then sat in on. Afterward, I edited the interview down for broadcast, which was then edited by Jane. Having worked on several of those elements in other programs on Vermont Edition, seeing one program through from beginning to end gave me a sense of completion and confidence, as well as a broader understanding of all the different components that go into a segment of that nature.

Working with sound engineer Chris Alberteen gave me some familiarity with the sound-editing program they use called Vegas. After observing Chris edit a program, having the Ski for Heat segment to edit on my own was a good test of the knowledge I had gained. Working with Tim, the web producer, allowed me to learn the interface for putting content online once completed. These elements, more technical in nature, are extremely useful for much of the work that is required in multi-faceted jobs in the digital realm.

The shows are always thoughtfully planned, but some things occur which are unexpected and more difficult to prepare for. Over the past few weeks, we’ve all been researching and preparing for the imminent layoffs at the IBM factory in Burlington. With no way of knowing exactly when they would occur, we tracked the news daily, preparing alternate guests and programs to account for the margin of uncertainty. They had guests at the ready, sound bytes prepared, and a story about the history of the plant to be aired in addition to the breaking news story. Flexibility and attentiveness to the latest developments were key elements to successful coverage.

Other topics I helped research included the potential merger of all public institutions of higher education in Vermont, personal interest stories on radical and sustainable living, the Hardwick sustainable food movement, Dartmouth layoffs, countless budgetary issues, authors, artists and other events. The tasks in the office varied from day to day. One day I learned about the website and content management, another I would work with the sound editing program, and others I would comb the newspapers for current events. I prepared and organized reports for submission to the FCC, went to news planning meetings, helped write scripts and interview questions, and brainstormed new stories for segments and set the programming schedule for the following week.

The people I worked with were extremely helpful and patient – giving me the opportunity to explore all different facets of the show’s production. On certain occasions, I would have to listen to past shows to find a specific sound byte, and then use the sound editing program Vegas to extract it and render it to be used in a new program. These tasks helped me develop practical skills, as well as to become familiar with past programming.

My time at VPR happened to coincide with the inauguration, and so the first time I went out into the field with Sarah, we interviewed people about their expectations and feelings surrounding the event. Having a VPR microphone definitely helped with issues of legitimacy and immediate familiarity when interviewing strangers. We went to the high traffic location of the new Davis student center at UVM. This experience made me realize that going out and talking to people and allowing them to have a voice is my favorite aspect of public radio.

I was given three other opportunities to go out and get sound bytes in the field. Once I went around the Vergennes area and interviewed people about their feelings surrounding inauguration day. I got to talk to business owners and passersby, and engaged in some very interesting conversations both on tape and off. Then, on the day that the IBM layoffs were announced I got to go out and speak with people entering and leaving the IBM compound about their experiences. On my last day, I was sent out to the streets of Burlington to interview people about the current economy and how it’s affecting their daily lives.

This internship provided me with the perfect transition out of the classroom and into the real world. I was given plenty of guidance, support, and valuable information as well as the confidence and freedom from the people I worked with to try my hand at the vast array of tasks and responsibilities of radio production. The opportunity to work with professionals as experienced and knowledgeable as the Vermont Edition team was invaluable and I hope to take the practical skills and understanding I gained and apply it in the world of radio production sometime in the near future.

Contact the Career Services Office for more information!

VT Fish and Wildlife Department

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VT Fish and Wildlife Department

Emily Picciotto, 2009

Over the 2009 Winter Term, I participated in an internship with the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department in Addison, VT. Specifically, I worked in the Dead Creek Wildlife Management Area. My daily responsibilities varied depending on the weather due to extensive work in the field. However, my main task over the month was to help the others in the office with maintenance of waterfowl nesting structures located on different Vermont waterways (swamps, lakes, ponds) near Lake Champlain. This work can only be done in winter because the nesting structures can only be reached when the water is frozen. Also, the birds have migrated south during the winter, so maintenance will not disturb them. My other responsibilities included attending meetings within the larger department, helping to construct nesting structures, marking sites for timber harvest, and assisting with general office tasks.

I feel I performed to the best of my ability this month. I was working in an office with two very knowledgeable men, who collectively had worked within the Fish and Wildlife Department for over twenty years. Being thrown into that situation was difficult at first, but I completed all tasks I was given to the satisfaction of my supervisors-they even asked me to return in the spring to help with some of their more exciting work. This is evidence to me that in working my hardest, my efforts were recognized and rewarded.

Through this internship, I learned a significant amount about a field I am interested in breaking into someday. Working within a government agency, although I had heard about it, I learned first-hand how long decision-making processes are because of all the sub-agencies trying to work together. As a public organization, the general public’s input and opinions are highly valued, and must be taken into consideration. As a result, many programs take much longer to implement than originally anticipated. I also learned a great deal about hunting and fishing in Vermont. Although the department works with conservation practices in mind, a large percentage of the state population enjoys recreational fishing and hunting. Therefore, many of the conservation practices in place are meant to simultaneously help hunters and fishermen. This was not something I originally expected to be learning about, but it is an important part of Vermont culture and the state’s dynamic.

Working with the Fish and Wildlife department also taught me about myself. Much of the work I was involved with over the duration of my internship was manual labor in one form or another. It was exhausting, but I learned what it really means to put in a hard day’s work. I also learned that I am capable of learning quickly under stressful circumstances, which will help me in any field I may choose to involve myself with. One of the most important things I learned is that I am a capable young woman, able to work with highly experienced men in a male-dominated field. Although at times I felt self-conscious, I was able to work through those feelings to get my jobs done.

Overall, this was an outstanding experience for me. I was lucky to have such knowledgeable and supportive supervisors who also became my friends. Through the development of those relationships, I was able to ask more questions, and learn more over my four weeks than I would have been able to otherwise. There truly is no other way to learn about a career field than to jump headfirst and get right into it. The opportunity I was given by Middlebury’s Winter Term program to do just that is something I will never take for granted. After my intense month of hard work and learning, I feel it should be a requirement of all students to participate in some sort of internship prior to graduation. I also feel really lucky to have been able to have this experience in Addison County because I have been able to meet so many great people in a different context than I would have been able to through a class or other direct College forum. I have come appreciate even more Vermont and the people that inhabit it through this internship than I have in my previous three and a half years at Middlebury.

Please contact the Career Services Office for more information!

Farmers Market Site Manager

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Apply as Farmers Market Site Manager Intern with

Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR)

Deadline: October 1, 2009

Internship Sponsor: Lamoille Valley Year Round Farmers Artisan Market
Supervisor: Amy Walker

Morrisville, VT

Site manager would work closely with board to activate guidelines during market operations. Communicate with venders, volunteers, and special activity people before and during market. Set-up and teardown coordination and lock-up. Help market grow and become self-sustaining. Nourish community, good health, and having fun in all efforts.

Mission Statement: The purpose of the LVYR Farmers Artisan Market is to encourage support for year-round sustainable agriculture & artisan work around Vermont and to provide a year-round outlet for local farmers and artisans to sell products.

Check out MOJO for more details about this exciting and local internship.