Going into this summer, I did not know what to expect. Dean of Students Office Intern? To the naked eye, this seems like a mundane job position. Who would not mind sitting in an air-conditioned office every day doing a variety of administrative tasks? Not surprisingly, this job title, once the everyday bureaucratese was decoded, meant something far harder and tougher than your usual office profession. Since I was specifically tasked to work with Mike Lynn, my job responsibilities as an intern for him mainly revolved around supporting his summer goals and assisting Campus Services in accomplishing those goals. As the residence life specialist, Mike is responsible for anything related to student housing, fraternity, or independent. For me, that meant I lived and breathed housing for the whole of my summer experience here at Wabash. After school was let out for summer, my first task to complete as an intern for Mike was to inspect all housing, looking for maintenance issues or non-college-issued furniture. From there, I assisted Mike in the annual process of checking out Seniors as they departed from Wabash housing for the last time, ensuring that they had not destroyed their rooms while celebrating their completion of four long years at Wabash. Once these two tasks were complete, the next several weeks were spent doing a few tasks that are “thankless” and more physically laborious: throwing non-college-issued furniture into dumpsters, inventorying
living units, and setting up living units for summer camps with the correct number of beds. As I am writing this blog, we have been for about the last month or so, going from living unit to living unit, rechecking our inventories, moving furniture so that each room has the correct number of desks and armoires, and setting up beds in preparation for the 2023-2024 school year. Although this job may not be the most impressive or challenging summer internship, I was able to develop my skills and abilities in the areas of leadership, teamwork, communication, task completion, attention to detail, and good ole’ grit.
