I'd like to thank the Academy, Mom and Dad, the Center for Imaging Science, umm...

So the other big event this week besides Workforce Innovations was the annual slew of summer intern interviews! (*cue fanfare.) For the first 4 days of this week, Joe and I facilitated the whole process (though on Tuesday and Thursday I got the ball rolling, as Joe was teaching). Each day, 6 interviewees, and in some cases their parents, would come in by 3:15. On every day though at least 1 candidate, if not several, were here 15 minutes early! But with the way parking is around here, I can't blame them. Anyhow, an overview session would take place until 3:30 when the interviewees were cut loose to get started. Most candidates were done and out of here by about 4:30 each day. While they were interviewing, the parents could choose to stick around or to roam around campus. Those that stuck around were subjected to my "What Is Imaging Science?" animation, and then could ask us questions. Some parents even got tours of the freshmen lab. All of the interviews seemed to go really well (no crying, at least) and hopefully the parents had a good time, too. It was interesting to meet and interact with so many people. But, I am glad to get those 1.5-2 hours of my day back next week... ;-)

The whole interview process then culminated in today's "Intern Draft"! This is always a fun thing to witness. Head shots of all the interns are posted up and lab leaders get to duke it out over who gets which interns. It is generally a friendly exchange, and everybody walks out with some fantastic interns that should do a great job over the summer.

I love the summer intern program, and obviously owe a lot of myself to it. But every year it stirs up some mixed feelings in me. There are so many bright kids out there, and we only have the capacity to take 14 or 15 of them. So there will be 40 or so applicants that end up disappointed. And typically not for any fault of their own - there are so many factors that go into selecting interns. All of the applicants are fantastic students with great potential. I'd hate for any of them to feel in any way discouraged against Imaging Science or RIT as a result of not making it into the intern program (for example, if they feel miffed). I think some of my bleeding heart tendencies come from the fact I'm a cancer (the crab - if you believe that mumbo jumbo); but I think generally it has to do with how much of myself I owe to the internship experience here. What if there's another Bethany trying to get in... Where would I be today if someone hadn't taken a chance on me 10 years ago???