Around the world in 24 days

By David Kramer, Staff Reporter

Graphics: Margot Field/The SPOKE

Unlike most students, seniors Ling Zhou, Stephen Shickel and Dana Bronzino’s packing lists for their internships look very similar to their summer vacation packing lists.

Senior Ling Zhou is traveling to Australia to intern at a private hospital in Melbourne. She will be there for the rest of May working with an ultrasound specialist. Aside from learning about the medical side of the hospital, Zhou plans to research the public and private health sector available in Australia.

“I think that it gives you an entirely new experience,” Zhou said. “I think it’s really good because it gives you a fresh perspective on things, but it’s also just a great opportunity to take to be out of the country and experience new things.”

Seniors can take advantage of the Senior Internship Program as long as they are passing their classes and have an up-to-date disciplinary record. Some students choose to make their internship a truly unforgettable experience by spending their last month as a high school student in a foreign country.

“We encourage seniors to take advantage of this program and do something that really interests them because we have kids who have been hired by their sponsors,” said Senior Internship Program counselor Pattie Littlewood. “We have kids who have even been hired after college because of the connections that they made as a senior intern.”

Seniors Dana Bronzino, Stephen Shickel and Ling Zhou will spend their internships abroad. Photos: Lavi Ben-Dor and Suproteem Sarkar/The SPOKE

Senior Stephen Shickel will be interning at Rotwild Bike Company in Frankfurt, Germany. He learned about this opportunity through his mom’s friend from work and will be staying there for 20 days.

“I want to travel to different places and see new things,” Shickel said. “It’s different than just working at school. It’s outside of the box.”

Pursuing a career as a teacher, senior Dana Bronzino will be going to Cordoba, Argentina for four weeks. She will be assisting an English teacher while enjoying the beautiful landscape of South America.

“I guess what I’m looking forward to most is really bonding with my host family and getting a feel for the community that they have there and interacting with the students,” Bronzino said.

David Kramer can be reached at dkramer@stoganews.com.

Conestoga graduate Sebi Rolotti will never forget the time a monkey landed on his table and stole his soda while he was having lunch with his uncle at the Taj Mahal in India.

Rolotti and his uncle, Carlos Jimeno, traveled across India for three weeks for his senior internship. He would explore a city all day, get on a train at 9 p.m. and start exploring a new city by 6 a.m. the next day.

“It was a way for me to see the world, to see things outside of what I was familiar with,” Rolotti said.

Although he had no specific job in India, Rolotti was able to take the trip as his internship because of the cultural value it provided. With a huge interest in Indian culture, Rolotti experienced first hand what it is like to live in an entirely different world.

“The more exposure you have to things that are different to your upbringing, the better prepared you are to deal with differences, which are what living in the world is all about.”

Rolotti feels the trip was beneficial in many ways. He had the opportunity to explore Indian cities and learn about their way of life. He even made some friends whom he still contacts via Facebook.

“We were very similar in certain ways, but still we are worlds apart,” Rolotti said. “Seeing other people’s perspectives and having them relate to you was amazing.”