For Wake Forest students all across the globe, the summer of 2018 was a productive one. Students from all grades have returned from their summers with detailed and unique stories, many of which involve interning with companies from all around the country.

Sophomore Gina Goldenberg’s summer involved work with the Saint Rock Haiti Foundation (SRHF) based in Milton, MA. The foundation owns a primary healthcare clinic in Carrefour, Haiti, which provides healthcare to over 40,000 people in the area. SRHF operates the entire clinic, overseeing anything from general medicine to HIV and prenatal wings. Goldenberg worked closely with the organization throughout high school and even had the chance to work in Haiti within the clinics. This summer, Goldenberg reached out to the organization’s CEO to continue getting involved with their work. First, she worked on the financial analyses of the company to better improve the medicine prices that were being used at the time. Goldenberg also worked on the organization’s social media outlets and will continue to do so as the year progresses.

“Social media is really important for the organization, as it is a major platform where they can communicate messages about their cause,” Goldenberg said.

Goldenberg also co-hosted a spin class fundraiser that raised over $2,000 for the organization.

“I gained a lot of insight into the nonprofit world, which is really valuable to me because it’s the area I hope to work in,” Goldenberg said.

Another student who also had an interesting opportunity to get involved this summer is sophomore Ilse Schaeffner, who worked with Cell Signalling Technology (CST), Inc. in Danvers, MA. CST is a lab that researches products such as antibodies and designs personalized and specialized medicines to treat a wide variety of diagnoses, particularly in cancer. Schaeffner played a role in the company’s General Counsel, helping the legal department by proofreading documents and observing the relationship between the organizational and research branches of the company. She had the opportunity to meet some of the most important names in the company as well as accountants and developers who play a huge role in the incredible organization.

“It was a valuable experience to be in the presence of major scientific breakthroughs that are changing the world and working to improve cancer treatments,” Schaeffner said. 

A third student, junior Max Teitelman, took part in an internship with a private equity called Broadtree Partners based in Charlotte. The application was posted on Handshake, and Teitelman took part in three phone interviews regarding research he was told to do for the company. Teitelman worked 10 to 13 hour shifts for seven days a week, took part in phone calls and video conferences, and took summer classes at the same time. Teitelman said he learned a lot about the finance industry as well as about the specific behaviors of companies.

“I learned a lot about how important communication is, checking up on other people, and being open to having your coworkers come to you for personal matters when they want to,” Teitelman said.

Finally, sophomore JD Caras took an internship at Cameo, a start-up business in Chicago created for fans to book personalized video shoutouts from celebrities. One of his main tasks was to recruit the talent for the company and then work with them once they were on the new platform. Talent that Caras worked with included names from Bella Thorne to Terrel Owens and Josh Norman. Caras also developed and ran the company’s customer service department and was training two employees by the end of the summer. He also worked in marketing, social media and product development.

“In a start-up where there wasn’t much training … you had to create things that would actually affect the company as a whole,” Caras said. “I had fun with the start-up atmosphere, made connections with people that I still can’t believe and learned more than I ever thought.”

It is clear that Wake Forest students truly do not stop getting involved when summer comes around. Healthcare organizations, talent companies and finance firms have all brought valuable experience to Wake Forest students, and hopefully their experiences will encourage others to get involved through internships in summers to come.