In the winter of my junior year, I knew that I wanted to do something special for my last summer internship opportunity at Princeton. Excitedly, I perused the many positions offered as part of Princeton’s International Internship Program (IIP), hoping to find an immersive work experience abroad. By my junior spring, I had secured myself an internship at Athens Voice, a media company located in Athens, Greece!
My summer internship consisted in composing informative articles for English-speaking tourists visiting Greece. In my time with Athens Voice, I produced advertisements, restaurant reviews, destination recommendations, and narrative-style pieces depicting my experiences in Greece. The eight-week long internship provided ample time for me to visit Greece’s most famous museums, monuments, and archeological sites, writing about my adventures as I went! As a Classics major, I relied upon my academic interest in Ancient Greece to inform my articles on modern Athens, allowing my education at Princeton to shape my experience. I consider myself so lucky to have found a summer opportunity that so seamlessly blends my passion for classics, my skills in the communicative fields, and my desire to visit foreign countries.
A major component of my internship entailed exploring Greece with the mindset of a tourist so that I could best offer my unique insights and advice to the publication’s audience. Instead of spending my days cooped up in an office, I was heavily encouraged to explore Athens and beyond. This resulted in many weekend trips to the Greek islands with other Princeton students working in the area. Over the course of the summer, I was able to visit the islands of Paros, Naxos, Hydra, Sifnos, and Aegina. I quickly became an expert in navigating Athen’s metro and ferry systems as travel became a defining component of my summer. Whether I was hiking the hilly terrain of Sifnos, swimming in the vivid waters of Hydra, or admiring the blooming bougainvillea flowers in Paros, I can safely say that my summer was filled with beauty, relaxation, and magic! At the same time, I fostered special relationships with my travel companions that I hold onto dearly as we return to campus this fall.
As I reflect on my time at Princeton, I look back longingly on these kinds of travel experiences. I feel satisfied that I have been able to take advantage of Princeton’s support to enrich myself in ways that I could never have anticipated before coming to college.
