Working like a dog - in the dog days

College senior Amanda Sloan looked on in frustration at the picnic table on the first day of a local teen leadership conference. This is what she saw: African-American children were seated on one side and white children were on the other. "The students were divided along racial lines completely," Sloan said of the students participating in a workshop she coordinated over the summer. "Finally... we said, OYou know, we just have to talk about it, we just have to say why is this happening, and let's discuss it,'" Sloan recalled. She instructed the students to discuss why they thought this segregation was happening, and by the end of the two-day workshop, the students were laughing together and crying at the thought of leaving each other. This turnaround was one of the most rewarding parts of her summer internship at the Center for Greater Philadelphia, a local non-profit organization that matches up urban and suburban schools in an effort to increase interaction among students of different racial backgrounds. Sloan was one of many students who took on a challenging summer job. From non-profits to major investment banking firms to government offices, Penn students were exposed to the rigors of the real world. For Sloan, the most rewarding aspect of the Summer Leadership Institute she helped create was the friendships formed among the students. "It was amazing to me that after two days and a night, these kids had really bonded," Sloan said. Walking to work was one of the perks of Sloan's summer job experience near campus, but other students had a longer trek to the office. Wharton senior Ben Oren, for instance, suffered an hour-long commute into Manhattan, where he worked in the credit risk management division of Credit Suisse First Boston. Oren, who is concentrating in Finance, Management and Legal Studies, spent his days on the phone with traders and investment banking analysts around the world. Often, he wouldn't leave the office until 10 p.m. "There were a lot of times when [I] had to stay late to talk to Hong Kong or talk to Singapore," Oren said. For Oren, this international aspect of the job was very rewarding because it meant that "you actually have to work harder to learn new people skills." People skills were equally important for College senior Lori Uscher, who spent the summer interning as a paralegal in the Department of Justice's Anti-trust Division. Any merger of companies must be approved by the Justice Department, and Uscher's job was to read over cases and pass them on to lawyers. Aside from such bonuses as meeting Janet Reno, Uscher, an International Relations major, said the highlight of her job was working as the head paralegal on a case just two weeks into the summer. "They really had faith in the quality of the people they hired," Uscher said. Uscher lived at home in Fairfax, Va., and while the 90-minute commute was a painful one, she said it was worth it. "I think those are the best jobs, the non-profits and the government... where people are really passionate about their work," Uscher said