{"id":1197,"date":"2018-10-03T22:26:33","date_gmt":"2018-10-03T22:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-the-words\/?page_id=1197"},"modified":"2024-08-01T17:13:04","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T17:13:04","slug":"internship-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/the-words-october-2018\/internship-spotlight\/","title":{"rendered":"Internship Spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Miriam Moore-Keish \u2019<\/span>19<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re sitting in the middle of Kagin Commons, trying to get that last bit of reading or that final sentence of your response paper finished, when a tour guide wanders in reciting off the same statistics you hear every day, \u201c33% of Mac students complete an internship for credit before graduating…This past academic year, 396 students from 30 academic disciplines interned in areas ranging from fine arts to nonprofits, from education to government and business\u2026 We\u2019ll talk about dorms in a moment, so if you could please save those questions for later.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what kinds of internships do Macalester students get? Specifically, what opportunities are available for students in the English Department? In this issue we are spotlighting Bethany Catlin \u201919, who interned with Rain Taxi Review of Books over the summer. Rain Taxi is \u201ca literary organization that champions aesthetically adventurous literature through publications, events, and service to the literary community.\u201d Perhaps best known for organizing the Twin Cities Book Festival, the largest literary event in the U<\/span>pper Midwest (which will be held this year on October 13, from 10:00 am\u00ad\u00ad to 5:00 pm, at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds), Rain Taxi has hosted a number of events and speakers here at Macalester, most recently, Gary Shteyngart on September 24th.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Headshot<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Though she did assist in running similar events, like the reading and interview with Michael Ontdaatje and Louise Erdrich, Catlin spent most of her time working on Rain Taxi\u2019s free quarterly review publication. She said, \u201cRain Taxi\u2019s review is a fantastic way to acquaint oneself with new and upcoming work\u2014we read lots of foundational and well-established literature here at Mac, as we should, but writers are emerging with n<\/span>ew genre-bending ideas and perspectives all the time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only did Catlin get to edit reviews, she also had the chance to write her own, for <\/span>Aard-vark to Axolotl: Pictures From my Grandfather\u2019s Dictionary<\/span><\/i> by Karen Donovan, published this year by Etruscan Press (you can read the review in the Fall 2018 edition of the Rain Taxi Review on the<\/span> Rain Taxi Website<\/span><\/a>). Working on reviews was Catlin\u2019s favorite part of the internship. She said,\u201cI loved working on reviews best\u2014editing them, writing them, and corresponding with their reviewers. I feel like that\u2019s the part of the job when Rain Taxi gets to take off its community organizer hat and put on its purest book enthusiast hat. M<\/span>y reading list has quadrupled.\u201d Anyone can submit a review to Rain Taxi Review of Books. If you want to spread the word about a new book you\u2019ve read, check out their<\/span> Submission Guidelines<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Internships can provide rich experiences, but, in the humanities especially, little financial compensation. The hardest part for Catlin, and for many unpaid interns, is the lack of funding. The<\/span> Macalester Summer Internship Grant<\/span><\/a> was a great resource for Catlin but she still needed to get a part-time job to support herself. Additionally, Catlin admitted that, \u201cthe small size of the organization means that they really do work you, and they don\u2019t have a replacement for you if you\u2019re sick.\u201d Despite the challenge, the internship process like Catlin\u2019s at Rain Taxi, is and was a priceless experience. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Catlin \u201cabsolutely\u201d recommends involvement with Rain Taxi, \u201cwhether that takes the form of an internship or volunteering at one of their events. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI learned a ton, and was able to touch on and work with each part of the book industry, from writers to editors to publishers to publicists to book distributors to booksellers to reviewers to book lovers. If you\u2019re thinking about wanting to go into the literature industry, Rain Taxi is a fantastic place to get a peek at what the process and the people look like.\u201d <\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Miriam Moore-Keish \u201919 You\u2019re sitting in the middle of Kagin Commons, trying to get that last bit of reading or that final sentence of your response paper finished, when a tour guide wanders in reciting off the same statistics you hear every day, \u201c33% of Mac students complete an internship for credit before graduating…This past […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":913,"featured_media":0,"parent":1193,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1197","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/913"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1197"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7239,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1197\/revisions\/7239"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}