From the thrill of horseback riding to the fast paced bustle of magazine publishing, Mount Saint Mary College students Andrew Overton of Hopewell Junction, N.Y. and Claudia Larsen of Bethel, Conn. experienced a taste of their future fields during their internships this semester.
Overton interned with the Anderson Center for Autism. His responsibilities involved working with two of the Center’s non-verbal clients at Sur-Thing Farm, which is home to animals like horses. Throughout the course of the internship, Overton observed the effects that animal therapy had on the clients’ moods, and he was amazed with the results.
Overton stated that the clients would sometimes have nervous outbursts while in a classroom setting, but while interacting with the horses, they were calm and at ease.
Overton plans to attend graduate school to study Animal Behavior. “We’re not that much different from our friends in the animal kingdom,” stated Overton. “And there’s so much we can learn from them.”
As for Overton’s clients, their improvement has led Overton to continue working with them after the end of his internship. “If it’s helping people, that’s what I want to do,” he explained.
Larsen worked as an editorial intern for Chronogram Magazine, a subsidiary of Luminary Media based in Kingston, N.Y.
She wrote for the web layout and staff sections of the magazine. She also wrote for other Luminary Media subsidiaries such as Exploring the Hudson Valley, a tourism guide, as well as Upstate House, a real estate magazine.
According to Larsen, her time with Chronogram helped to broaden her skillset as a writer. “My writing style was very newsy,” said Larsen. “It’s transformed over the last three months with a lot of help from my editors.”
The internship was a perfect fit for Larsen, who hopes to one day work as an editor for an arts and culture magazine.
“Having all that editorial experience, especially at an arts and culture magazine, was very helpful,” she said. “I want to use that to help me be a more unique candidate to magazines.”
Mount students explore internships with the help of the college’s Career Center. The Center provides a wide variety of career-related programs and opportunities to Mount students and alumni such as career assessments, internship searches, professional skill development, job search assistance, and study abroad opportunities.
The Career Center is often credited by Mount graduates for providing powerful, proven, and practical tools to help shape their post-graduate portfolio. More than just a student program, the Career Center provides students and alumni with lifelong tools for success and advancement.