Not long into the frustratingly lengthy 25 minute intermission, there was breaking news: the MIA intern was on her way and would arrive, supposedly ready to present, in about 10 minutes. Sure enough, she eventually showed up - but not so much ready to present. I did everything I could to get her mentally prepared (pep talk mode, activate!), and after getting her presentation set up told her she had 5 minutes to relax while I rounded up the audience and other interns from whatever far off places they had wandered away to. She would have 10 minutes to present, which would carry on straight through to the next group of interns scheduled to present, right on time. Ah, relief.
And the presentations carried on - though, despite making it past the major hiccup, my drama was not over. Perhaps I was still just worked up with adrenaline... but faced with another threat to the smooth operation of my event, I found myself quite upset. You see, a person (who shall remain nameless) showed up in time for the intern presentations from his research lab. However, he was apparently only interested in what one of the interns had to say, because he was typing on his laptop during the other interns' presentations. Now, this is a major pet peeve of mine; I think it is extremely rude to be on a laptop while someone is presenting, especially if you are typing (which creates noise and can be very distracting, not to mention discouraging, to the presenter). Not only that, but doing so sets a very bad example; and on top of that, I am very protective of my interns - Many of these kids were presenting for the first time in front of a major audience, especially one so distinguished, and they needed all the support and encouragement they could get. As if that in itself wasn't enough to get my goat, what do you know but a grad student (who shall also remain nameless) walks in, sits down next to noname #1, and starts whispering questions to him! They engage in a full-on whispered conversation of significant length, all while an intern was trying to present on her research. If I were a cartoon, you would have seen my face turn red and steam blowing out of my ears. At the conclusion of their whispered powwow, I shook my head in disappointment and mouthed to the grad student, "NOT. COOL.", to which he tried to whisper some excuse of "he's a hard guy to find, gotta take advantage of every opportunity." I mouthed another "not cool" and added on something like, "that behavior is unacceptable", but it was over at that point. Grrr, even a week later, I am still getting worked up about this. How disrespectful!
Anyways, from then on the presentations proceeded without any more notable hitches or disruptions, until finally it was all over. PHEW! Well, almost over - we still had one last thing to do before cutting the interns loose.
In past years, once the presentations were over, the interns all just said quick goodbyes and went their separate ways. I always thought this was kind of sad - no final celebration? No after party? Not even a real goodbye? So this year, we decided to host a final pizza lunch for everyone so we could unwind one last time and do a little celebrating. This also worked out well for the conclusion of the Intern Challenges, since we planned the last one to be a video meant to serve as somewhat of a closing credits to the whole summer. Not everyone chose to stick around, but those who did presented paper plate awards to each other, watched the final videos, and enjoyed pizza one last time together as CIS interns. A lot of the videos were really great (and practically tear-enducing), but we had to pick winners and present one intern with the final GRAND PRIZE for all the challenges (congratulations, Henry!!!!!). After that, it was time for goodbyes. Some were reluctant, others were awkward, many were sad... It was a long time before everyone was actually gone. I'm happy to say though that I did get a few hugs. We had a great group this summer, many of which I expect to go on to great things (hopefully here at RIT ;-) )... I hope they keep in touch. I already miss them.
And now we can time warp back to my original post from the last day of the summer intern program 2012, and all is back to how it chronologically should be. Poof.
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