Questions from THE UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA !!

Q: Hi Intern Queen,

 I’m a junior at UCF (Go Knights!), and I got so excited when I saw all the great internship opportunities listed on your website.  The only problem is, I live in Orlando, and while there are some great things available here, I find myself most interested in internships available in NY and LA.  How does an unpaid intern afford housing and the cost of living in the big cities?  I’d be willing to chalk it up to a great experience and new connections, but I’m not so sure my parents would be willing to pay for it.  What did you do?

 

Thanks!

C

A: Hello Fellow Golden Knight ! Good to hear from you ! Yes, currently we only have a few internship listings in Orlando. First, we need to figure out which field you are interested in. If the magazine listings in New York interest you then lets think on a smaller scaler for the spring semester. There are a few great publications in Orlando (Sentinel, Orlando Style, Orlando Mag, etc). Try calling these places and asking what you need to do to intern there. And them let me know so I can convince them to post with me ! For spring and fall semesters I always did local internships. I suggest putting together a specific budget of how much money you would need to go to NYC for the summer. NYC tends to be a bit easier because you don’t need to worry about transportation and NYU has a summer program where students from around the country can stay at their dorms. Check it out online, it’s called NYU SUMMER – That’s what I did and it worked out great. Also, you can definitly get a summer job and have an internship. When I interned in NYC, I only interned 3 days per week so I could have easily worked 5 days per week. When I interned in Los Angeles for one summer I was working at Islands (Burger Restaurant) on the weekends and in the evenings and interning during the day. Another good thing about the NYU Summer program is that you can do a meal plan so that most of your food will be pre-paid as well. Get it all planned out and then go to your parents with it. If you have to stay in Orlando, that is fine too. Just look into companies that interest you there. Many times it’s the smaller companies that give you more hands on opportunities.

Hope this helps.

Best,

Lauren