One essential part of choosing where to apply for internships is figuring out location.

For next summer, I have chosen to pretty much stick to my homeland, meaning the Twin Cities. As amazing as it would be to go abroad or to another city, I have decided that that is probably not the best choice for me at this moment in time for a variety of reasons.

1. Money. If I intern at a place based in St. Paul, Minneapolis, or somewhere else in the greater metropolitan area, I can live at home and save money rather than spending it on rent, transportation, food, and everything in-between. I know my parents are fine with this—in fact, they would probably love to have me home again for another summer. Especially since I will be studying abroad fall 2011, I want to save as much money as possible in order to travel and have a good time in Ireland. If the internship is not paid, I can hopefully apply for one of the Scripps internship grants to make up for the lost money, or if worse comes to worst, I can easily get a part-time job for the weekends through the store I worked at during high school. (Something that would be harder to do if I was in a new city.) Luckily for me, Minneapolis (and St. Paul) have a thriving culture of journalism and publishing, so there are lots of options that I would apply to anyways.
2. Study Abroad. I already mentioned this, but I am studying abroad fall semester of my junior year. I haven’t looked in the exact process for Ireland, but I feel like it would be best to deal with obtaining a student visa and renewing my passport if I’m at home and have easy access to a car.
3. Boyfriend. So, this is actually the lamest excuse in the book, and if it was the only influence on choosing a city to intern in… well, let’s just say it wouldn’t be a strong enough influence, as much as I like him. (And I’d expect the same from him! We are both practical people.) However, it will be nice to be able to visit or see my boyfriend (since he lives only three hours away from the Cities, and this is, of course, assuming he’s going back to his hometown, which is probably unlikely) at least once or twice, rather than not at all.
4. Actual Location. Let’s just be honest—I love my home state and the Twin Cities, and as I already mentioned, they are a great place for someone interested in journalism, publishing, or writing (believe it or not). Minnesota is beautiful in the summer, and not only will I be able to see my family, but I will be able to visit some of our 10,000 lakes, possibly go camping, and just have a great time further exploring Minneapolis.

The summer after junior year, I hope to obtain another internship, probably in a different field so I can explore my options, and I believe that then I will be more ready to intern abroad or in a different city (cough New York cough).