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While summer brings a well-earned break for �鶹��ý students, it is also a time for some to explore their future career interests through internships. This summer, 130 students participated in both domestic and international internships through the �鶹��ý Internship Program (PCIP).

The Career Development Office’s PCIP summer experience allows students to discover career paths by providing funding for living and travel expenses for internships. Students spend the summer working in industries such as government and policy, education, research, art and design, and many more.

Students who participated in this summer’s internship program were able to live in new cities, hone different technical skills and learn about careers they had not considered before.

Sebastian Groom ’26

Sebastian Groom spent seven weeks in Portoviejo, Ecuador, interning at media company El Diario Ediasa. His time was spent primarily working in the sports department: setting up interviews with coaches and players, following El Diario’s social media pages and editing video that was broadcast on television. In addition to sports news, Groom also contributed to a story about the lack of environmental policy in Ecuador and what needs to be done to implement policy changes.

Though he plans to major in economics and Spanish, Groom says he’s always been interested in sports journalism. This internship was an especially intriguing opportunity since his mother is from Ecuador.

“Print news in Ecuador is still very important because not many people have access to 24/7 news services. I knew I wanted to help contribute to the success of El Diario and hopefully bring a diverse perspective to help do so,” Groom says.

Groom expresses how rewarding his internship experience was this summer. He gained new skills like how to conduct interviews, operate a TV camera and edit videos, and he was able to improve his Spanish-speaking skills. But the most valuable part for him was “being able to interact with so many wonderful people, not just within the office but outside of it as well,” he says.

Lucas Florsheim ’24

Biology major Lucas Florsheim deepened his interest in ancient organisms and paleontology as an intern at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Florsheim learned to clean and prepare fossils for research and display, including fossils of dinosaurs, reptiles, mammoths and other animals.

PCIP funds made it possible for Florsheim to move to Denver for the summer from his hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Florsheim particularly enjoyed getting to travel to North Dakota for a week to do field work on a dig for dinosaur fossils. He describes the experience as “surreal,” saying, “I think if you had told five-year-old me that I would be doing that when I was 21, I would have lost my mind.”

Florsheim says his internship opened his eyes to the possibility of working at a museum one day.

“There are a lot of great institutions across the country, and these are good skills to have in terms of looking ahead towards grad school. This was a unique experience. A lot of people learn the material, but they don’t get to apply the material,” Florsheim says.

Phebe Mason ’26

Phebe Mason experienced some drama this summer through her internship at the Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand (SGCNZ), a non-profit organization focusing on mentoring and improving life skills through the work of William Shakespeare. Located seven hours from her hometown of Auckland, New Zealand, PCIP provided funding for Mason to travel and stay in Wellington as she helped the organization put on the National Shakespeare Festival. The festival featured workshops, tours and performances by youth.

Mason, a prospective theatre major, was part of the final stages of planning for the festival. She also worked backstage and front of house during the festival and helped wrap up the event. “I’d never done such intense planning or stage management before. It was very different to what I’m used to, but I think it was great and educational, showing me another side of theater that I hadn’t really explored yet,” Mason says.

She says her biggest takeaways were seeing all the small details that go into theater productions and all the people that are involved as well as that there are many different career paths within theater. She says it also solidified her love for the creative side of theater.

“I’m just so grateful. I wouldn’t have been able to have this experience without PCIP. I couldn’t have been paid by the organization since they’ve had some recent cuts. The funding not only made a huge difference for me in terms of my summer experience, but it also helped this organization,” Mason says.

Eva Nichols ’25

Eva Nichols spent her summer making connections to the past as an intern at the repatriation osteology laboratory of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Her work consisted of cataloging Native American skeletal remains from various archeological sites in the Great Plains region of the United States.

Through the internship, Nichols, an anthropology and Spanish double major, learned about the science of human osteology, which deals with the recovery and interpretation of human skeletal remains. “At the Smithsonian, repatriation is a collaborative process by which the museum returns sacred Native American objects and human remains. It was powerful for me to witness in person,” says Nichols.

Through the course of the summer, she was able to begin feeling comfortable identifying and handling human remains. Her internship equipped her with skills she hopes will allow her to return to work at the Smithsonian one day.

“My biggest takeaway is the work doesn’t stop at just acknowledging these harmful pasts and even current realities of certain institutions and of this country as a whole. Processes like repatriation, when done correctly and ethically, seek to redistribute power back to the affected communities. There’s always more work to be done and more progress to be made,” says Nichols.