Summer Internships: From Beijing to Philadelphia

With summer break only 17 days away — yes, I am counting — I have one big thing I’m looking forward to: my internship in Philadelphia! Despite spending my last two summers interning in Asia, both of which were amazing experiences but nonetheless very far from home, I decided to look for an opportunity in the US this time. As a result, this summer I will be conducting sociolinguistic analysis of doctor-patient conversations for a healthcare analytics firm, and I’m thrilled to apply what I’ve learned as a linguistics major to a field I’m considering pursuing a career in.

Since this year Carleton ends in early June and restarts in September, we all have around 14 weeks off. Given that we have such a long period of time off, I think there’s really no excuse not to find something to do over the summer, even if you’re just finishing your freshman year. Honestly, it required a lot of luck on my part. The summer after freshman year, I stayed with my roommate and his family at Peking University for an internship in which I designed a linguistics course to prep students for the International Linguistics Olympiad.

The year after that, as I detailed in an earlier blog post, I was in Myanmar conducting research and teaching English.

Just a general observation, but I’d say a lot of Carleton students pursue more academic-oriented internships — and, to be fair, a large share of Carleton students want to pursue academic careers — or unique experiences that won’t have time for after graduation like traveling for their first two summers and then find a more career-oriented one between their junior and senior years before entering the workforce after graduating. Regardless of what opportunity you pursue, there’s a ton to be learned from any summer experience. While my first two internships likely won’t lead me to a career in education, I discovered a lot about what environments I work best in, whether an international career was right for me, and cross-cultural communication.

And for high school seniors getting ready to come to Carleton, this applies to you, too! Whether it be thinking about possible majors or careers or even enjoying spending time with high school friends or even your family, doing something is better than sleeping 15 hours a day and awakening to your phone alarm titled “Time for Netflix!” At the same time, don’t stress out too much about not having some formal work or internship experience over the summer, but remember that summers are large periods of time for students that you won’t be afforded in the working world.

In the meantime, I must return to the world of academics and continue trying to understand my nearly impenetrable semantics readings!

Chase is a junior linguistics major and is more than glad to exchange the year-round California heat for some Minnesota seasonality. In his free time, he enjoys learning and teaching urban dance choreography, playing guzheng, and cycling around Northfield. When Chase doesn’t have free time, which is often, he’ll be in the libe or Sayles with a cup (or cups) of chai tea in hand.