In November, the Corporate Council of Africa (CCA) will hold its biennial business summit in Cape Town, South Africa. The summit will be a three-day event of sessions, workshops, and networking opportunities which will focus on sectors from entertainment to agribusiness. Planning, understandably, is already well underway, and there is a Hamilton student in the midst of it. Ntokozo Xaba '08 (Seaglen Gardens, South Africa) is an intern with the CCA in Washington, D.C., this summer and spends his time working on research and background organization for the summit director, Angela Rae.
Xaba was one of more than 20 Hamiltonians who received college funding to participate in a summer internship. Work experience is becoming more and more necessary for college students but many opportunities are unpaid and require students to pay their own housing and living expenses as well as working for free.
Thanks to alumni and parent donations, Hamilton students can apply for funding to support them while they work in a field of interest with an organization that cannot pay them. Though Xaba works in an unpaid internship, he received a stipend from Hamilton's Joseph F. Anderson Internship Fund, given in honor of a 1944 Hamilton graduate who served the college for 18 years as vice president for communications and development. The fund in his name provides individual stipends to support full-time internships for students wishing to expand their educational horizons in preparation for potential careers after graduation.
Many students start their internships cold, but Xaba began his by attending a three-week course at the Development Program Management Institute before he arrived at his job. "I now fully appreciate the word intensive," he joked. The course ended with a practicum in Ecuador where Xaba was required to communicate with his client entirely in Spanish.
Xaba is thrilled to be involved in the CCA organization, especially in a capacity that does not involve him fetching coffee. "I had half-expected to stuff envelopes working with the Summit Director but I've gotten opportunities to write reports and brief the Summit Director about certain things," he said. A native of South Africa, political and economic climate are two of the topics on which he can brief his boss; Rae has in fact referred to him as "the in-house African Trade Minister."
Part of the reason he is enjoying his summer so much, Xaba explained, is that he is used to living in Washington, D.C. Since entering Hamilton, Xaba has interned with the South Africa International Business Linkages (SAIBL) in Washington and participated in Hamilton's D.C. Program (Xaba has also interned with SAIBL KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa for ECI Africa, a sister organization of the Corporate Council on Africa). "The most fun is being in D.C.," he said. "There are so many mentally stimulating things to do in the evenings and weekends here, and guess what, they're all free."
To future interns, Xaba says, "Research, research, and I do not mean JSTOR or EconLit, I mean research on the organizations, agencies or companies involved in your line of interests and figure out whether you'd fit in. The smaller the size and the least popular the office the more responsibility and the scope of work that one gets to do. The size of the office doesn't correlate with their scope of networks or your job description."
During the year, Xaba participates in Model U.N. and Model E.U. and plays IM soccer. A rising senior and public policy major, he plans to enter the job market when he graduates.
-- by Lisbeth Redfield
Xaba was one of more than 20 Hamiltonians who received college funding to participate in a summer internship. Work experience is becoming more and more necessary for college students but many opportunities are unpaid and require students to pay their own housing and living expenses as well as working for free.
Thanks to alumni and parent donations, Hamilton students can apply for funding to support them while they work in a field of interest with an organization that cannot pay them. Though Xaba works in an unpaid internship, he received a stipend from Hamilton's Joseph F. Anderson Internship Fund, given in honor of a 1944 Hamilton graduate who served the college for 18 years as vice president for communications and development. The fund in his name provides individual stipends to support full-time internships for students wishing to expand their educational horizons in preparation for potential careers after graduation.
Many students start their internships cold, but Xaba began his by attending a three-week course at the Development Program Management Institute before he arrived at his job. "I now fully appreciate the word intensive," he joked. The course ended with a practicum in Ecuador where Xaba was required to communicate with his client entirely in Spanish.
Xaba is thrilled to be involved in the CCA organization, especially in a capacity that does not involve him fetching coffee. "I had half-expected to stuff envelopes working with the Summit Director but I've gotten opportunities to write reports and brief the Summit Director about certain things," he said. A native of South Africa, political and economic climate are two of the topics on which he can brief his boss; Rae has in fact referred to him as "the in-house African Trade Minister."
Part of the reason he is enjoying his summer so much, Xaba explained, is that he is used to living in Washington, D.C. Since entering Hamilton, Xaba has interned with the South Africa International Business Linkages (SAIBL) in Washington and participated in Hamilton's D.C. Program (Xaba has also interned with SAIBL KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa for ECI Africa, a sister organization of the Corporate Council on Africa). "The most fun is being in D.C.," he said. "There are so many mentally stimulating things to do in the evenings and weekends here, and guess what, they're all free."
To future interns, Xaba says, "Research, research, and I do not mean JSTOR or EconLit, I mean research on the organizations, agencies or companies involved in your line of interests and figure out whether you'd fit in. The smaller the size and the least popular the office the more responsibility and the scope of work that one gets to do. The size of the office doesn't correlate with their scope of networks or your job description."
During the year, Xaba participates in Model U.N. and Model E.U. and plays IM soccer. A rising senior and public policy major, he plans to enter the job market when he graduates.
-- by Lisbeth Redfield
