Institute for Cultural Ecology

We are all familiar with the phrase “actions speak louder than words”. This is literally incorporated into the internship programs available through the Institute for Cultural Ecology, which from this point forward will be referred to as ICE. The ICE programs are designed to match the academic goals and interest of the participant to the host organizations and researchers from around the world. This blending of international cultural exposure along with an opportunity to work with a team that has dedicated themselves to their law careers within their culture provides an educational experience and lifetime experience that forever impacts you as an individual and professional. Many students as well as professionals working to jump start their career turn to law internships for that the hands on experience that is so crucial.
Legal internships allow you to actively participant on various tracks of the legal system, encountering exposure and real life experiences working from all sides including working with a sitting judge and law clerk, experiencing the operations within a law firm, as well as learning the process and advocate change through participation in the legal department of a special interest group. Just check this testimonial from Emma, a legal internships participant - "We have loved Chicago sooooo much. Our placements (at personal injury law firms) have both been amazing, we are truly gutted to be leaving soon, I'm already looking for flights out here again sometime in the future."
Working within a community growing your skills and experience in a culture that is unfamiliar to you makes a much stronger impact on you that cannot possible be obtained within a standard classroom, embedding memories that will influence you and last a lifetime. Courtney, one of the interns, describes it - “This is an experience you can't have preconceptions about. The friendly people, stimulating information, and the unbelievable scenery will blow you out of the water. This internship is about new experiences that will open your mind.”
In addition to law internships, business internships can be designed by ICE to provide you the hands on experience working directly with a high profile public relations firm. You will be honing your business skills through developing press releases, writing media releases, developing media kits as well as tracking and monitoring media results to list just a few of the assignments in the media internships. The second track of this program will place you with a special interest group or specific business working directly in the PR department giving you the opportunity to promote an agenda about which you have strong feelings.
Another area of business internships is human resources. This challenging career choice works to align qualified, skilled individuals to fit the plans and requirements of the business. This internship also involves working with organizational design and development as well as individual performance management, conduct and behavior. Media internships is the last area we'd like to feature today. This opportunity can involve working in journalism, working at a community newspaper experiencing the hands on training for many of the skills required in this industry. Charlotte and Anouk Moerkerk talk about their media internships experience - "I am really grateful for this high quality journey into media internships. First of all, the apartment in Brooklyn is perfect. I am working on a project for a new television program and a press conference the station will hold next week. I have to make sure that a camera crew can shoot footage. The staff is really nice and friendly. I love New York!"

Going Abroad: Can You Afford to Follow Your Bliss?

In 1988, wearing a High School letterman jacket one size too large and braces minus the wire that I habitually removed, I entered Lewis and Clark College. Carl Sagan's Cosmos yet ruled the universe and Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth was the preferred stocking stuffer for many a Lewis and Clark freshman. Two of the most potent myths that Campbell propagated were: 1) there really is such a thing as a "good day to die" for many indigenous cultures; 2) when making life decisions the greatest advice is to "follow your bliss."
My undergraduate advisor echoed Campbell. “Take the courses you like,” he advised, “and major in the subject that you are best at.” I chose philosophy as a major and to make it even less palatable to future employers I chose religious studies as my minor. With the decline in the economy, the rise in college tuitions, and double digit unemployment rates awaiting new graduates, some pundits are calling college an outright "scam." A Salon.com article all but summed it up: "Is it time to kill the Liberal Arts degree?" The age-old proverb that philosophy bakes no bread has new chefs in the kitchen.
As going abroad is intrinsic to the liberal arts mission, its value is under siege. At Lewis and Clark, 85% of the student body study abroad. Indeed, this was our spirit quest: Joseph Campbell's "liminal experience." And those that did not study abroad chose to volunteer abroad or intern abroad. But, with USA Today reporting that student loan debt will soon exceed 1 trillion dollars, surpassing even credit card debt, some talking suits have suggested that going abroad is a bet on your bottom dollar (or the Chinese yuan should the government assume your debt).
According to Troy Peden, President of GoAbroad.com, "study abroad has remained steady, but intern abroad and volunteer abroad is going crazy! Through the roof." As the Director of an intern abroad company, I too have watched the numbers increase exponentially. The economy has spoken and students have answered. If they are forced to bake bread, then by-God they are going to do it in foreign ovens.
Study abroad is something of a hedge fund for students. It allows them to follow their bliss while at the same time generating a resume-worthy experience. The main difference is their ROI may very well be the realization that life is a journey, not an investment. So, from a philosophy graduate to the men who have never left the kitchen, keep on baking: my backpack is full of your goodies.
Anna Lindjem, a former student of mine, had this to say following a marine internships course: "I'm not so interested in how a cell works anymore. I'd like to know how all things work together, like reef ecology and how humans affect their environment. I'm into the bigger picture now. I will be doing more marine internships in the future.” Seeing the big picture is not mere self-exploration: it is good business. Many of the so-called “practical degrees” such as accounting and graphic design are heading to the equator. The survivors in an outsourced world will be those who can think out of the box, see the forest from the trees or the reef from the cell as the case may be.
The evidence is no further than the palm of your hand. The latest juggernaut of Apple products were not based on pure technology, but a vision. Steve Jobs credits his travels to Asia and immersion into mystical religions for his perception of the human/technology interface. His ability to see the moon in a dewdrop and the synergy between the simple and the complex ushered us into a new world.
At this very moment, the next game changer may be sleeping under the stars with Bantu tribesmen or spinning cotton with Nepali factory workers. In the vast reaches between what we know and what we experience, inspiration is born. The kitchen will always have its bakers. I say follow your bliss.

Hawaii Internships: Changing Your World in Paradise

Changing lives through marine internships and ecology internships is the mission of the Institute for Cultural Ecology. Both of these tracks come together in our Hawaii internships programs.
Alison Metz, a former biology major and competitive swimmer at UC Santa Barbara, enrolled in I.C.E.’s marine internships program after hearing about it from two teammates who had participated in it. The course, which involves extensive backcountry hiking and wilderness camping amid the spectacular and diverse natural scenery of the Hawaiian Islands, focusses on reef internships and study in remote locations.
Metz claims to have benefited most from the time away from the daily grind to reflect on life and consider her future. "I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do, and that was of the greatest impact. I really learned to slow down, and I think that's the best thing I could've gotten from the trip. I think I took a little bit of that home with me. When you're in college, you try to fit eight thousand things in one day, and there, your task for the day might be setting up camp or collecting bananas or … free diving and picking algae off rocks to analyze … It was a slower way to live. When I was dreaming of hawaii internships, this was what I imagined."
Metz, who had never been camping before, also enjoyed that aspect of the experience. "I think I learned the most from the group interaction and the challenges of the hikes and the camping." She tells of one particular experience that made an impression on her. "There was a hike that took five hours that went through eleven canyons and valleys that was a pretty big deal, because we wound up back in the forest where no one goes, and there was a local there who collected coconuts and bananas for us and made us dinner. It was an enlightening experience to realize people do live off the land that way."
Clearly, the reef internships differed from her day to day life. Metz goes on to ruminate, "We've adapted in a very weird way, in that we sit at our computers all day, and it had a huge impact on me to live that way for six weeks and to realize that we're actually supposed to be doing that … There you're going to sleep with the sunset, you're waking up with the sunrise, and everything's different, even your body. I've never felt so healthy. And if you allow it to, it really makes you ponder what the point of life is -- like, should I be outdoors enjoying the beauty of this world every day or should I be inside crunching on my laptop?"
The flagship program for the Institute is called Intern Around the World. Here, Students are able to choose from ecology internships, marine internships, and reef internships in Hawaii, Fiji and Australia.
I.C.E. runs a program called Intern Around the World, a multi-country experience focusing on reef internships in Hawaii, Fiji, and Australia.Anna Lindhjem, a participant in the Hawaii internships aspect of Intern Around the World observed, "There was a sign we saw on the wall of a hostel in Maui that said 'Be a traveler, not a tourist,' and I think that's what we really got to do." Dr. David Adams is a cultural anthropologist who founded the Institute for Cultural Ecology in 1999. He is the author of Samsara and Season of the Loon, both available at Amazon.com. The Institute is an ecology internships provider company that specializes in marine internships and reef internships. To learn more about the hundreds of intern abroad and study abroad options in more than seventeen countries see www.cultural-ecology.com