The GuideBook To Securing High Profile Internships

Chapter 1

There was no dropping out of school and starting a cool unicorn startup for me. I needed to go with the safest bet, which was to secure a degree, rack up them loans and get a nice job to pay them off by 65 years old. 

My aunt and uncle’s sole purpose in life, in their eyes, was to make sure I graduated from college with a degree. So I did what every obedient high school student did and applied to college. My SAT scores were average as hell. I had a 1,400 out of 2,400 on the SAT and a 9 out of 16 on the ACT.

I could honestly say that I half-stepped my college applications, I applied to four schools. Lehigh University flat out denied me. Ramapo College didn’t even respond to me. Another school, Monmouth University, which I thought I was going to get accepted into with flying colors, denied me. I bombed on the writing section of the application that asked: “Why do you want to join our program.” So my last and only option was attending Montclair State University, a local state school only 30 minutes from Irvington. I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life so I declared as undecided so I could find myself. Looking back on it now, it was just God playing the process of elimination for me, which at the time made me feel like I was inadequate.

Luckily for me, I got into a state funded program called the Education Opportunity Fund (EOF)  where I was able to spend six weeks gaining college skills with 120 other incoming freshmen from low-income backgrounds from around the area.  We got exposed to all the on-campus resources from the Writing Center to the Center of Psychological Services. This cut down the amount of time I spent on campus trying to figure out where certain offices were located. We also took classes for real academic credit, which was helpful because I got a 4.0 GPA in the writing class, which carried over to the regular school year. Being able to be connected to minorities at a Predominately White Institute (PWI) from day one was like getting the cheat codes to Grand Theft Auto, it made my life so much easier. The same counselor I had from my freshman year I have at my disposal until I graduate, which makes the bond even more real and the advice given seem more thoughtful. 

EOF boosted my confidence and allowed me to claim my throne on the college campus early. To be in the same room as students from Harvard, Yale, and many other Ivy leagues during my internships in the future, I had to make sure I was excelling at my home turf at school and making sure I set a foundation. Starting off college, I never wrote down the goals and things I wanted to accomplish. I did however just say one thing, “I wanted to be remembered.” Which made filling in the gaps that much easier as time went on.

When opportunity knocks at the door, you gotta yank the door open and welcome it in. One day during the ending of the summer program, a faculty member was giving a presentation on being a campus leader. She said if anyone was interested in working in her office as a student leader, to come and speak to her after the presentation. Everyone paid her lip service, but no one except me and another student actually took her up on her offer. As she was leaving the building, I snuck out and caught her on the stairwell. This woman, who remain nameless, held a position as the head of Commuter Student Programming. Her responsibility was making sure that commuter students got the same amount of love and attention as residents. Even though my school was a commuter school, residents got all the programs and resources to make their college life exciting.