My first internship of the summer started the Monday after finals week. It wasn’t much of a break, but I was excited to work with Dr. Nelson and Dr. Campbell on their research and projects for the department. It was a considerable upgrade on some of the summer jobs I’ve had in previous years, which include working at a pallet factory and as a janitor (both of which were valuable experiences that I am thankful for, but not what I was hoping for this summer). I was eager to learn about the behind-the-scenes work that goes into writing and contributing to books and expand my knowledge of the study of Religion in the areas of Dr. Nelson and Dr. Campbell’s expertise. I’m grateful those desires and others were fulfilled over the course of my internship.
Working with Dr. Campbell, I learned about early Christian writers and some of the sources they worked with in early C.E. centuries. I was excited when, later in the summer after my internship ended, I read a book that referenced some of those early thinkers whose work I had perused for sources in May and June. I also helped compile resources for Dr. Campbell’s upcoming class on early Christian economy, which, though my contribution was quite minor, gave me a small peak of the massive amount of work professors do to prepare courses.
While working with Dr. Nelson, I proofread for formatting and grammar chapters by Religion scholars from America and Europe. It struck me a couple of different times, as I was reading the draft of an eminent theologian from a flagship school, how odd it was that I, a lowly undergraduate at a small Midwestern college, was editing his work (of course, I was doing so as an attaché of Dr. Nelson, and English is this scholar’s second or third language, but it still struck me as amusing!).
I loved other elements of my internship — attending two sessions of the Wabash Pastoral Leadership Program and creating a departmental newsletter were both highlights — and it solidified my desire to pursue further education in Religion after Wabash.
Thank you to Dr. Nelson, Dr. Campbell, the rest of the Wabash Religion Department and its supporters, Libby Manning, Joy Harlos, Dr. Warner, Career Services and many others who made my internship possible.
