SUMMER 2003 •
VOLUME 8, NUMBER 1
SPECIAL ISSUE: REAPING THE REWARDS OF
THE PLAN FOR MOUNT HOLYOKE 2003
Plan
goal: Increase linkages between liberal arts education and purposeful
engagement in the world
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Katherine
Blake '03 and friend |
Each year, January
Term internships give Mount Holyoke students hands-on experience
and a taste of future careers. This year, aspiring physicians,
politicians, lawyers, businesswomen, and scientists, among others,
worked in a wide range of fields at sites as close as Amherst,
Massachusetts, and as far away as Accra, Ghana.
Katherine Blake '03
spent four weeks with more than 350 monkeys at the Texas Snow
Monkey Sanctuary. The environmental studies major, who is graduating
with a concentration in wildlife/primate conservation, found that
the sanctuary was "the perfect experience for my interest in nonhuman
primates." Situated among the cacti and mesquite brush of Dilley,
Texas, the organization offers sanctuary to Japanese macaques
(snow monkeys) that have lost natural habitats to human development.
It also cares for vervet monkeys and baboons whose owners can
no longer care for them. "I spent a good deal of my time feeding
Japanese macaques in the main 'semifree range' enclosure," says
Blake. "This was one of the most amazing parts of my experience.
We would drive in on the back of a pickup and throw food out to
more than 200 snow monkeys. The truck would often be taken over
by swarms of juveniles looking to get the food themselves! Some
of my other responsibilities included assisting with medical procedures,
captures, and releases and giving the extra TLC that the monkeys
needed and deserved, such as grooming or baby-sitting a sick monkey.
My stay at the Texas sanctuary showed me that running a sanctuary
requires a great deal of responsibility and inspired me to pursue
veterinary medicine."
This January Term
found Taoran Sun '05 interning at Morgan Stanley's Boston office,
where she assisted sponsor Richard Turcotte with a major marketing
campaign directed to more than 40,000 people. "I performed all
computer and technical assistance such as research, data processing,
printing, sorting, and mailing," says Sun. "I also helped with
monitoring financial advisers' performance in the firm, coordinating
business seminars, and other general administrative responsibilities.
The internship let me get a sense of the job and life in the real
business world, which was part of my goal. My sponsor gave me
full freedom to work on my own and assist him. He treated me like
a colleague, and he strongly encouraged me to give him suggestions
and advice that might enhance efficiency. I have declared a double
major in economics and mathematics, and I am thinking about a
career in finance. This was a great opportunity to get experience
in a top financial group."
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