The dream of living and working in bustling New York City could come true for some Ball State students.
Starting Fall Semester 2013, Ball State students will have the opportunity through an internship program with the New York Arts Program.
At 5 p.m. Thursday, the English Department will host a call–out meeting in Teachers College Room 102 for those interested in the program, which offers students the opportunity to participate in an internship while living in New York City.
The available internships range from writing for “Saturday Night Live” to working for playhouses on Broadway. Students will live in a Chelsea brownstone that has been converted into a dorm-like living space.
Former Ball State creative writing student Kelly Stacy participated in the program during the 2012 Spring Semester. He participated in the Bowery Poetry Club and the St. Mark’s Poetry Project while in New York.
“The experience is going to be different for everybody depending on your passion, your motivation for going,” Stacy said. “If you go, you will be shocked, startled from your norm, and that is a good thing. It’s a great program for people who don’t want to be complacent. You see and do so much that the days bleed together, a mural of action.”
Stacy said there was so much to do in the city that every day “you were exhausted but in a good way.” In particular, he spoke highly of all the music he was able to experience while in the city.
His favorite memory was reading in front of a crowd of more than 300 in a bar during a poetry slam.
“I remember when I finally got up on stage, shaking like my skin was agitated with me. I looked down and there was a circle of people staring up at me,” he said. “So, I just read, tried to give it my all and walked straight out the door of the bar. When I came back in about 20 minutes later, a line of people formed in front of me, all of them coming to congratulate me. That was about the most overwhelming experience that I had.”
The official campus liaison for the program is Cathy Day, an associate professor of English, who participated in the program herself during the 1990 Fall Semester. Day participated in an internship with Interview Magazine, which was founded by Andy Warhol in 1969.
Day said the best part of her experience was being surrounded by people who appreciated the arts and who weren’t afraid of city life or people who dressed, spoke or acted differently.
“When you grow up in the Midwest, you feel a little freakish if you’re somehow ‘different’ from the norm,” she said. “But in New York, and especially at a place like Interview, eccentricity was welcomed, which I found quite freeing at a really crucial moment in my apprenticeship as a writer.”
Day had some other special experiences as well, saying she brought sandwiches to actress Winona Ryder and even faxed something to Robert Downey Jr.
Day said the publisher for Interview told her she would have a job there if she decided to come back after graduation. However, through the program, Day realized that journalism was not for her and refocused her career on writing. She has published two books, “Comeback Season” and “The Circus in Winter,” which was adapted into a musical.
“I’m lucky that I had a chance to figure out what was and wasn’t right for me before I graduated,” Day said.
Both Day and Stacy recommended the trip, saying it offered an experience for those in the arts to explore opportunities that they otherwise wouldn’t get to have.
“This program allows you to dip your toes in the water of New York in a very structured, safe and educational way,” Day said. “Even if you don’t want to live in New York permanently, spending part of your career there will benefit your professional life in ways you can’t possibly imagine.”
Students will earn 16 credits — amounting to a semester’s worth — if they choose to participate in the program.
