Pestering Pays Off

Last year I spent my summer slinging fast food and wishing I was doing some fancy, mind-expanding, resume-boosting internship. That was before I joined career services and saw the light.

Last semester I made an appointment with one of my bosses, Irene Komor, for career counseling. I used to think that I would never find any good internships because I was so determined to spend my breaks at home in Philadelphia. Before I started working at career services, it seemed all the good opportunities I heard about were in D.C. or New York. But it turns out there's hope for me, and for everyone else who doesn't live in the internship capitals of the U.S.

At Irene's suggestion, over winter break I got in touch with a few of my favorite Cornell history professors. I asked if they could recommend anyone for me to work with in the Philly area area (pestering step 1). Next, I researched what the recommended professors studied and zeroed in on my target. Once I knew who I wanted to work with, I asked Cornell professors who knew him to put in a good word for me (pestering step 2).  Then, I sent a draft of my letter of inquiry to an extremely generous Cornell prof. who reviewed it for me (pestering step 3). I emailed the new and improved version to the Penn prof. I hoped to research with (pestering step 4). It turned out that he was traveling over winter break, so we couldn't schedule an interview till spring break. We made plans and I emailed him the week before to confirm (pestering step 5).

One rainy train trip to Penn later, I had a research gig for the summer. It's unpaid, so I might be back to slinging fast food nights and weekends. But at least this summer I'll be spending some quality time in Penn's library exploring  interesting questions and figuring out if the academic life is for me.