Internships

 

Assistant Coordinator for Interpreting the City - Buenos Aires

Location: SPU - Seattle and Buenos Aires
Website:  http://www.spu.edu/gum/BuenosAires-Page1.asp

Intern: Nicole Ide, class of 2007
Length of internship: Approx. 3 months

Interpreting the City – Buenos Aires is a two week intensive, five credit course designed to fulfill the requirements for THEO 4620, a required course in the Global and Urban Ministries program.  This internship consisted of assisting in planning, logistics, coordination, and implementation of the course.

What were your responsibilities?

I had five main responsibilities:

  • Design a website for the Buenos Aires course that included basic information, frequently asked questions, and application information. Future interns will need to maintain and update that webpage.
  • Get 15 students participating in the class plus faculty to the Buenos Aires airport. This included working with a travel agent to find the best possible flights and fares for each student and faculty.
  • Coordination of the course/travel budget.  I made several different sample budgets before students were selected to see how many students could be accepted from a financial aspect. This task included researching and establishing prices for transportation, lodging, food, honorariums for guest speakers, classroom rentals, taxis, etc. 
  • Helped Dr. Nüesch-Olver with the application and selection process
  • Correspondence  with students
 

What were some of the highlights of this internship?   It has been a lot of fun to plan this course with Dr. Nuesch-Olver. It has been fun to help make decisions about all kind of details for the course. It really helped me to get a little bit acquainted with Buenos Aires before arriving there.

What were some of its challenges? Throughout the quarter, there were many other various tasks I worked on other than the items listed above. The course ended up being full of details that were not expected, so being flexible was key. There was no real schedule or to do list; it was constantly changing. At times, there was nothing to work on, and at other times I would need to put in a lot of hours at once.

What were some valuable skills that you have taken away from this internship?  I love traveling and experiencing new places, and I expect it to be a part of my life for quite some time. It was a great chance to get to find out what goes into planning an abroad trip like this - one that involves more than just buying a ticket online and finding a hotel.  It gave me a chance to develop some event planning skills, website design, and budget management experiences.

How do I apply for this internship?  Email Dr. Nuesch-Olver at DeNuOl@spu.edu no later than December 1.