All News

As an intern at BuildaBridge International, an arts education organization with programs in Philadelphia and developing countries, Kate Hails '10 is learning the business side of nonprofits. Hails works as an intern for Create!Discovery, a program of the BuildaBridge organization that seeks to provide arts-integrated classes during the academic year to children in homeless shelters and transitional homes in the Philadelphia area. Classes such as dance, visual arts, drama, and drumming link the children with teaching artists to expand their artistic, academic, social, and spiritual well-being.

For Kaitlin Britt '09 (Charleston, S.C.), summer research, following a junior year with the Associated Colleges in China program, has been one more step in pursuing a long-held interest. Britt came to Hamilton because of its Chinese language program, she says, and spending a year in Beijing pursuing intensive language study, learning 150-200 characters a day, was exactly the opportunity she wanted. Her developing language skills allowed her to learn more about Beijing, as well. "Being in touch with language helps," she explains, since her knowledge of Chinese allowed her to talk to people herself, rather than basing her opinions solely on what she heard on the news.

After spending the past year abroad with the Hamilton College Academic Year in Spain, Emily Powell '09 (Merion, Pa.) is putting her language skills to good use. Powell is working this summer as an undergraduate intern with the Safe Horizon Domestic Violence Law Project in Brooklyn, N.Y.. Her internship, she says, allows her to improve her Spanish skills and to learn about the dynamics of domestic violence, family law and public benefits.

Need a suggestion for a good movie? Ask Joshua Hicks '09, a rising senior from Newton, Mass. Hicks is collaborating with Professor of Religious Studies Stephenson Humphries-Brooks on a project titled "Romans, Movies, and the Disappearance of the Bible." The project is funded by the Emerson Foundation Grant Program, which provides students with significant opportunities to work collaboratively with faculty mentors, researching an area of interest. The students will make public presentations of their research throughout the academic year.

While many of his fellow students worked in internships or in the library doing research, Stephen Rowe '09 (Niskayuna, N.Y.) was walking through the streets of Darjeeling and Calcutta. "I didn't want to spend the summer in an office," the rising senior said. Instead, he spent it experiencing monsoon season firsthand, walking through streets flooded with one or two feet of water to collect personal observations for his project on deliberative democracy. Rowe's research collaborates with Associate Professor of Government Robert Martin, and was funded by a fellowship from the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center.

Patrick Hodgens '09 (Syracuse, N.Y.) has traded one academic institution for another – at least temporarily. This summer, the rising senior is working as an intern at the Syracuse University Press and learning about the academic publishing industry. Splitting his time between three different departments at the press, he is able to learn about how it functions as a whole.

Undergraduate research will again be the order of the day in the Science Center, as Hamilton hosts the seventh annual MERCURY Conference on Undergraduate Computational Chemistry. The conference, which runs from Sunday, August 3 until Tuesday, August 5, will include guest speakers as well as a poster session of students' research projects.

Summer for Hamilton students is not just a time to chill out on the beach. Summer internships are becoming more and more necessary for college students, letting them try out areas they might be considering as possible careers, and giving them valuable work experience. Students jump enthusiastically into summer internships in a wide range of fields, from federal regulatory agencies to nature preserve patrols to news stations, working with the professionals in their field and learning skills that they may use for the rest of their careers.

Texts like the Iliad may be old, but they are called classics precisely because they are timeless, turning up over and over again – sometimes in unusual places. Christopher Bouton '09, a rising senior from Beverly, Mass., is spending the summer researching the connections between Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, and two slightly more recent productions: "Blade Runner" by Ridley Scott and the television series "Battlestar Galactica" by Ronald Moore.

While many students use the summer to explore new professional opportunities, Susan Stanton '09 (Lafayette, Pa.) is sticking with what she knows. Stanton, who participated in the Hamilton Program in Washington last semester, started an internship with the National Organization for Women (NOW) in March and knew she was onto a good thing. "I really wanted to stay with NOW to continue some of my projects and working for causes that I truly believed in," she says.