By Amanda DeCamp

I wake up before the sun does on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to catch the Long Island Rail Road to Penn Station for the cost of $203 a month. Upon arrival in Manhattan, I walk from 34th Street and 7th Avenue to 46th and 3rd, a thirty minute stroll, in order to avoid buying a Metro card at the cost of $75 a month. My total commute to and from work is approximately three hours. My parents pay over $2100 in credits for me to schlep to Manhattan three days a week, for three months to work for free in an internship program with Conde Nast Publications.

I love my internship. I love the experience; I love learning new things in the field I want to work in. Last week, my first week at Details magazine, was fashion week. I was invited to go to my first real fashion show in the big tent set up in Bryant Park. Donald Trump was moments away from me sitting with his wife and the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson. To blatantly drop a few more names, Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, stylist Rachel Zoe, and actress Kim Cattrell were also there. Granted, I was standing in the back, sweating in my down jacket (I didn’t have room to take it off) and on my tiptoes to see over the girl in front of me. Despite, this, it was the second day of my internship, and I felt glamorous.

A short time after the finale, after Michael Kors received outstanding applause and after black Escalades and Range Rovers with tinted windows picked up the A-listers, I was back in the fashion closet sweating my way through numerous returns. Not everyday is a glamorous day, and most days are spent doing mundane tasks of updating binders, organizing men’s shoes by color and size, or finding lost items from photo shoots. Despite any undesirable task, I would still rather go to my internship over my classes any day of the year – rain, shine, sleet or snow. But, I cannot help but let the comments from friends and family that I am being used and abused irk me at times. The cost of shipping a few items that were never photographed featured in the magazine back to a designer costs more than my monthly train ticket. So, would a small pay help motivate me to be even better at organizing, prepping for shoots and be an all around more enthusiastic intern? I think it would.

My intern supervisor, Micah Johnson, said that being paid would only improve a bad intern’s work ethic. “We like to say ‘You get what you pay for,’ when interns aren’t good,” he said. “But I think that good interns are self- motivated and their performances wouldn’t be affected by a paycheck.” As I thought more about it, I realized that if we were paid, obviously the pay would not be great and the competition for spots would increase greatly. Unfortunately, the lack of monetary compensation makes it impossible for some to have an internship while in college. At Hofstra, students can go to class two days a week and intern three days a week, making it possible to do an internship while taking a full-time course load and not paying any extra. However, most schools that are not in proximity to New York City, are not as lucky and must do internships during the summer, meaning paying for an additional three credits.

Depending on where you are interning, you may or may not receive free gifts. For me, I have thus far received men’s pants, men’s ties, men’s belts and more men’s fashion. I suppose that is what you get when you intern at a men’s fashion magazine. Any free gift is a nice gift though, and it just makes me a nicer sister and daughter when I bring things home for my brother and dad. Although ties and belts don’t pay for my train ticket or for the time I spend, it does make up for some of the feeling of being used.

I often try to remind myself that it will all be worth it when I have internships to write on my resume in addition to a decent GPA and extracurricular activities. One day, I will be the intern supervisor and know how hard it is to be a poor college student who goes to school two days a week, interns three days a week, and works for a meager hourly wage on Saturdays and Sundays just to get by, and then attempt to make the time, energy, and money to go out once in a while. Sophocles said that “Wisdom outweighs any wealth,” and perhaps he was right. It may not build up my bank account, but it definitely builds my character.

Amanda DeCamp is a junior print journalism student. You may e-mail her at [email protected].