How to get into Hollywood as an Intern

Get your foot in Hollywood’s door. With these internships, you won’t just be taking care of the director’s dry cleaning or taking lunch orders with these internships. Most of the time.

Jay Leno needs help with his monologue jokes. Scripts for the Tonight Show have to be read and analysed. Reprise Records needs help coordinating concert tickets with radio stations, setting up interviews with label talent and managing mailings.

These are just some of the roles available for college student interns in LA, home of Hollywood and the beautiful.

Amy Wood, a senior Television and Radio major at Ithaca College, said she enjoys working on Ithaca College Television, but her main interest lies in producing documentaries. So she decided to go out to Los Angeles to work for Film Garden, a documentary production company.

Guide to the Goods

Step one
Be sure to consult the Hollywood Reporter and Variety, which list numerous internship and job openings in L.A. Also, by frequently reading these magazines, you will get a sense of the careers in the entertainment industry.

Step two
Send out your cover letters and resumes ASAP. These internships go fast and you don’t want to miss out.

Step three
Even though it seems hard to believe, these companies want you more than you want them. The free labor you’d be supplying is in high demand, so be selective when you have several offers.

Step four
Once you’ve picked the lucky company, work hard. When you are not given work to do, ask for something to do. By showing your interest and enthusiasm, you will gain more and more responsibilities.

Step five
Don’t forget to remind them exactly when you will be graduating in case they’ll need a full-time , paid employee later. Send a thank you card and always keep in touch.

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How to become a White House Intern this summer

 

There’s no better place to observe how government works than in the White House. The excitement of being in the White House complex and observing the daily workings of the executive branch is incredibly rewarding, if not always as glamorous and tawdry as the news would have you believe.

I spent the summer before my junior year as a White House intern. Unlike many Washington interns, my assignments were meaningful and interesting and I was a valuable part of the team in my office. Better yet, I was given time to attend special speaker events sponsored by the internship office and to explore life in Washington. I also met a wide range of incredible young people and spent a great deal of time discussing complex issues with them.

Not everyone’s experience was as good as mine. Some interns felt they were given too much clerical work, or expected to work the same exhausting hours as paid staffers in their offices. The experience varies greatly depending on the office to which you are assigned; it’s best to talk to former interns before you apply.

Applying for a White House internship isn’t a difficult process - it just takes a sharp cover letter, a resume a one-page essay and three letters of recommendation to get your foot in the door. True, not all applicants get in by merit alone (unless you count well-connected parents and friends as personal achievements). Powerful people can do wonders for your prospects, but they’re not required.

Applicants must be:

    * At least 18 years of age on or before the first day of the internship
    * Enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program at a college or university, or graduated the previous semester
    * A U.S. citizen

Completed application materials must be submitted to Karen Race, Deputy Director and Intern Coordinator in the office of White House Personnel, at intern_application@whitehouse.gov prior to the following deadlines:

    * Applications due March 6, 2007 for Summer 2007 (May 22 to August 24, 2007)
    * Applications due June 26, 2007 for Fall 2007 (September 4 to December 14, 2007)

Getting an Application

There is an online application form which you can fill out. The Adobe PDF version is available here and the Microsoft Office DOC version is available here. To request an application from the internship office, call (202) 456-2742. Once the application is filled out, you need to submit it via Fax. The White House Intern fax number is (202) 456- 7966. You might also want to check with your college guidance office, which probably has a copy of the application on file. Or you can send an inquiry letter asking for an application - which is how I started off - to:

The White House Intern Program
Old Executive Office Building
Room 4
Washington, D.C. 20500

Upon acceptance, candidates must consent to a security clearance prior to their start date and a random drug test. All security measures are confidential and intended to protect the applicant as well as the Executive Office of The President. 

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Students, University Libraries and Sex: The Dewey Seximal System

Dewey Seximal System: More and more students are going to the library, looking up catalogue number 69 and boning up on some human reproductive biology.

Yale University gained notoriety in the last decade when the “freshperson” issue of the Yale Daily News called on new students to think of its library “first as a place of study, but second as a kinky haven of intercourse.”

Half a world away at Stirling University in Aberdeen, U.K., a Press and Journal article called sex in the college library “the latest craze,” noting it had become so notorious cartoons on the subject are featured in the university newspaper.

“It’s going on all the time,” Sara, a 23-year-old biology major, told the Press and Journal in January. “My boyfriend and I are regular library goers.”

But is fornicating in the aisles of knowledge a college ritual or simply a time-honored university legend? According to a survey published in “Esquire,” out of 1,000 college students surveyed, 10 percent risked reprimand or expulsion to commit an assortment of lewd acts in the library.

“It definitely happens, but even one time is too much for me,” said George Kingman of University of Oregon , who says the intellectual sanctuary of a library should be respected like that of a quiet medieval church, but sometimes isn’t.

“We get peepers, flashers, masturbators, and people surfing the net for porn,” he said. “But I can’t recall catching any couples.”

That may be because couples, unlike flashers who often want to be noticed, are discreetly getting some without getting caught.

As an Oregon junior, Rebecca Bartly said she and her boyfriend once had sex in a remote corner of the library.

“My boyfriend and I were both in the library one night,” Bartly remembered. “I don’t know if it was the thrill of getting caught, but we both got hot-and-bothered thinking about it.”

When Bartly and her mate discovered a suitably private spot, they couldn’t resist the thrill. “The room we were in had a lock, but we didn’t use it,” she said. “I was so worried someone would come in. It was definitely thrilling.”

Even Jesuit and catholic colleges aren’t immune from depravity. At Gonzaga University in California, students report widespread use of the conference rooms for more than reading.

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Tips on how to Spend time with your significant other’s Parents and Family

Tour of Duty : Spending time with your significant other’s parents can be a real stressfest.

I’m heading out to the Midwest in a couple weeks to visit my girlfriend’s family. It’s the first time I’ve ever stayed with them. I’m nervous about it, so I turned to my older brother Jack for advice.

Jack is getting married in August, and he’s made the dreaded visit to his girlfriend’s family. I asked him how I can impress the family-in-law.

He replied:

    To: matt@askstudent.com

    From: john@blah.edu

    Subject: Advice on meeting prospective in-laws

    1. Don’t eat other people’s food, even if they’re full.

    2. Don’t hold hands with male relatives of your girlfriend in any manner which might be construed as “different” or “special.”

    3. Don’t eat your own food with just a knife and a stabbing motion. Try to use the full range of utensils.

Apparently he was just suggesting I avoid the mistakes he made.

Knowing Jack’s inability to distinguish between being full and being sick in a Homeresque fashion, (Ooo .. my stomach doesn’t feel so good. Still some ribs left. Must keep eating) the first and third commandments of good etiquette did not surprise me. The second one required some explanation.

More Advice

#1. “Do not start any funny story you’re telling her family with the words: ‘I was so wasted,’ ‘I was so drunk,’ or ‘I woke up in this Dumpster.’

#2. Do not show them your ability to hotwire a Buick with your eyes closed.

#3. Do not make jokes about that funny mole on your girlfriend’s butt.

#4. Use the words “Sir” and “Ma’am” as often as possible.

#5. Clear the table at least once.”

#6. Talk about how you survived meeting the ‘rents.

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What happens if you fall in love with your Teaching Assistant?

What happens when you fall for your teaching assistant? Or worse, your teaching assistant falls for you?

Finding a reason to attend class discussion sections may be difficult, if not impossible. So when you find a reason, it seems smart to hold on to it for dear life — unless that reason happens to be the 5-foot-11-inch, sparkly-eyed pillar of perfection standing at the chalkboard and calling roll. If affection for your TA is what lures you to class each week, you might have a problem.

At a large university like the University of California at Los Angeles, the age gap between student and educator in discussion groups is significantly smaller than it is at other levels of education, since most teaching assistants are graduate students.

While sometimes this lack of age-gap can be an advantage, it may also prove problematic. Especially when it comes to a crazy little thing called love.

Because the age difference between TAs and their students is often negligible, there are natural attractions and temptations that surface. Rumors of students dating their TAs are ever-circulating in campus halls.

Mike Cantor was a teaching assistant for a drama class at the University of California at San Diego. In an essay he wrote, he discussed his struggle deciding whether he should date one of his students.

“I started dialing Melissa’s number about 10 times. Something stopped me from following through, and it wasn’t because I was nervous. I guess I knew there was something wrong with a teacher dating a student,” Cantor said.

In UCLA’s student handbook, there’s no specific statement regulating relationships between students and their TAs. All that is specifically addressed is sexual harassment and sexist behavior.

“The university respects the right of all employees to conduct their private lives as they see fit, yet at the same time, dating relationships between faculty/TAs and students, during the time of the pedagogic relationship, are strongly discouraged,” said Rhoda Janzen, a teaching assistant consultant at UCLA.

The gray area of students dating TAs is silently governed. Representatives from student affairs in the department of biology say TA’s going out with students is not allowed and that this is a “professionally understood rule.”

However, the Teacher’s Guide, according to university ombudsperson, applies to TAs as well — and it does address the dating issue.

Rather than actually prohibiting TA-student dating, the guide says “faculty members must understand that ‘romantic’ or any kind of socio-sexual liaison with current students” can place the student’s education and relationship with the educator in jeopardy.

“TAs are in the process of learning how to be professionals, and that means learning how to maintain a professional distance. They need to learn that. It’s OK to make friends; you just need to keep that distance,” said Dan Rosenfield, a sociology TA.

The guide describes in detail what could be compromised should star-crossed lovers start a relationship. Mainly, the guide serves as a warning to TAs, instead of as a prohibition.

One TA said she feels that a clear rule regarding romantic relations between students and their teaching assistants should exist.

As opposed to student-student dating, it’s a risky case because there’s a question of motive. There are several possibilities. On one side, a student could fabricate emotions in attempts to receive a better grade, and on the other a TA may use his or her administrative power to engage the student in a relationship.

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What if your Best Friend falls in love with you?

Nothing is better — or worse — for a good friendship than a little nookie.

“I thought briefly that I was in love with a good friend,” said Jessica Kahl, a junior at Stanford. “But before too long, I realized that we were just not prepared to make the transition from friends to something more.”

Kahl has managed to remain friends with her crush over three years of college, and she feels certain she made the right choice.

“Without the mystery and newness of someone unknown, a relationship with a friend might lack some excitement,” she said.

The scenarios seem endless: to tell or not, to act or not, and then there is the other side. What if your best friend falls for you? The dilemmas involved with friends falling for friends are perhaps as numerous as the number of people who experience it — and that’s a lot of people.

Nicole Canrelli, a junior at the University of New Hampshire, is one of them. Her good friend fell for her. “I think he is a really nice guy, but I was just not attracted to him,” she said. “He kept asking me out, and I kept saying no.”

Canrelli resolved the situation uniquely. She told a girlfriend who liked him to go out with him.

“He has not been after me since,” she said.

They’ve remained friends through all the changes.

“I have just tried to act as if nothing unusual ever happened,” she said. “It is kind of hard, but I don’t want to lose his friendship. I have to make it work.”

Hollywood Feels Your Pain; Hollywood movies of friends falling in love with friends

Falling for a friend? Wondering if you should let them know, keep it a secret or try to get over it? Don’t worry, Hollywood understands. Check out the morals of these friend-falling-for-a-friend movies for advice.

When Harry Met Sally
Harry and Sally meet at the end of college and keep meeting until they have sex. They feel funny after. He compares her to a dog. She bitch slaps him. They meet once more at a New Year’s Eve party, he in a bad jacket, she with a bad perm and both feeling sorry. “Auld Lang Syne” and “The Wedding March” ensue.
Moral: Wait. You won’t have to fake the orgasm.

Clueless
Josh hates Cher’s shallow, Beverly Hills bitchiness. He hates her surgically-enhanced friends. But he’s got her back anyway. What he should hate is that he’s kissing his stepsister. Eww.
Moral: Divorce sucks face.

Some Kind of Wonderful
Watts is a girl who seems to lust to the beat of a different drummer. After changing carburetors the live-long day, she sits at the kit in her garage and pines for her bud Keith — though that Denise Crosby haircut and the G.I. Jane-goes-to-CBGBs outfit point to a possible obsession with Amada, the object of Keith’s affection. When Watts stoops to playing chauffeur in order to chaperone Keith and Amanda’s date, it’s unclear who she’s ticked off at and who she turned on by. Fortunately, Keith almost gets his ass kicked and gives Watts the earrings and practice smooch she’s apparently been waiting for.
Moral: Not every chick who seems like a lesbian is one.

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Second Annual Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition

Informit.com is providing a good coverage of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. Students put their skills to the test, trying to lock down systems against intrusion from an invading hacker team. All in the name of learning.How many times have you heard a commercial telling you how much money an Information Technology professional can earn in a year? Well, trust me; the job is not as easy as it sounds. Just ask the eight teams that participated in the annual Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC). During the event they are under immense pressure to a build web application, maintain a web server with an ecommerce system, manage an Exchange server, keep a DNS server up and running and more — all while protecting their network from four seriously determined hackers.

From the article: “When the three hour grace period was over, the Red Team slowly worked their way into attack mode. One member started to sort through the information they gleaned from their scans and investigated each possible exploit. Another member fired up a MySQL database client and started to poke around the students databases looking for sensitive data. The two others were adding/changing accounts to routers, firewalls, and systems. However, for the most part, the students were not being pelted with attacks. And this continued for the next several hours.”

The rules were fairly simple — at least at first glance. Basically, the Red Team could do anything but hurt someone or perform a denial of service attack (network flood). The student teams were a bit restricted, with regard to changing IP addresses and messing with the infrastructure.

Communication was allowed between team members, but only the team leader could talk to the white cell members about problems, etc. The feds could be called over for an investigation and the Red Team was allowed to try to talk to the teams to put a social engineering twist on the games. Finally, all business objectives and administrative requests are sent to the CEO via email.

I’m all for this and from TFA, this sounds like a great thing (and lots of fun!). It seems that this includes even the social enginnering aspect. In other words, it’s a trivial matter to get into somebody’s system; it takes a whole another skill set to convince that person to hand you the keys to their data. That is to say, attempting to gain access to a computer system through it’s weakest link: THE USERS! It’s one thing to pit technical skill againt the threat of hacking, but it’s been done over and over, all that technical skill accounts for nothing if you have a user that has his/her password written down on a sticky - on their MONITOR! Users must be educated and kept up to task on things like this, and it’s my opinion that the IT/Security industry does not place enough emphasis in that area.

In this contest, Social engineering was allowed. It seems that a few members of the Hacker/Red team would often walk around the room and try and to watch what people were doing. A few times they even stopped and tried to get information out of the student/blue teams. However, they had to leave our team area when asked. It seems that one team actually left sheets with the wrong passwords on the tables in hopes that they(Red Team) would waste their time.

Even GoogleFight thinks that the Red Team actually whupped the Blue Team with the Red Team(Hackers) returning 267,000,000 results compared to the Blue Team(Students) which returned 146,000,000 results.

For those who read French here is a press release [web.crim.ca] about a team of Scheme hackers headed by Marc Feeley [umontreal.ca] participating in a Quebec security competition who won both the first prize for keeping the other nine teams out and the second prize for finding the most security problems in the other teams’s servers.

According to a member of the student team

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