While many of us spent the summer glued to the television watching Paul Hamm and Michael Phelps win gold medals at the 2004 Olympic games, senior Sheena Sahibdeen was in Greece amongst the athletes.
After applying for the NBC summer program in Greece, Sahibdeen, an English major and mass communications and media studies minor, was sent with 200 other interns to help NBC at the 2004 Olympic Games.
"Greece was the most amazing experience that I have ever had," Sahibdeen said. "The Olympics themselves were amazing, and to be with NBC was also amazing. I got to meet so many people within the industry, and I got to go to parties and meet a lot of the athletes."
For Sahibdeen - who is well traveled and has lived in different places, including London and Brazil - culture shock was not a problem. In fact, one of the most positive experiences for Sahibdeen was becoming acquainted with the Greek culture - and the Greek food.
"I loved the Greek culture and the phenomenal people who all wanted to learn about the U.S. culture," Sahibdeen said. "I got to go to lunch with the Greek drivers and the local intern runners, and the food was wonderful."
While many of the interns had feared that there would be anti-American sentiment in Greece, once there, they found that this was not the case. "I think that we were all really worried about that before getting there, but once you get there, not at all," Sahibdeen said. "People were just curious to know whether most Americans are like Bush, but no one was passing judgments on us.
"As long as you were willing to answer questions, they were just interested in hearing opinions," she said.
Although intern responsibilities varied from day to day, Sahibdeen and the other runners all worked long days. "We would work 12-hour days to get an idea of what it would be like to work under pressure in another country," Sahibdeen said. "I worked in the international broadcasting center we helped put together. We organized security measures and got everyone housing and transportation to and from work."
"We didn't have pull in what was being aired, we just helped all the producers get together what they needed," she added.
While most people paid up to $1,000 to attend the closing ceremonies of the Olympics, Sahibdeen was not only present, but was among the athletes for the ceremonies.
"I was the only intern who got to work the closing ceremonies," Sahibdeen said. "I was on the floor and I was basically asked to locate certain athletes on the floor so that NBC cameras could tape them."
Sahibdeen said that this task was not usually allotted to NBC interns, but that she had been lucky in knowing "one of the producers from my hotel - it was one of his assistants who couldn't go, so he asked if I would like to work."
Though only undergraduate interns, Sahibdeen and the other students received the same high-class accommodations and constant access to transportation that the 3,000 NBC workers also at the Olympics received.
"From the end of July to Sept. 2, I stayed in a hotel in Athens on the beach - it was gorgeous," Sahibdeen said. "We had a meal plan and transportation arranged for us every day. They split us up according to what venues we would be working at closest to us - people were situated throughout Athens."
For Sahibdeen, working with NBC in Athens was just the latest step in a media arts journey. "I like interacting with people," Sahibdeen said. "For the course of my future I don't want to be stuck behind a desk. I met with [Associate Director of the Experimental College] Susan Eisenhauer and she suggested that I try out the media industry."
Since meeting with Eisenhauer, Sahibdeen has held four different internships in the media industry. Her first was with FOX in New York City, where she worked on the Fox morning show "Fox and Friends."
After working with Fox, she next interned for BMG, a company that owns many record labels and, as Sahibdeen said, "does just about everything." For Sahibdeen, this was a memorable experience.
"I got to work in the urban publicity music department - I worked with Angie Stone, Usher and OutKast in New York City," Sahibdeen said.
Sahibdeen currently has an internship with the Boston NBC division, Channel 7. She is working for the public affairs program "Urban Update," which airs Sundays at 11:30 p.m. The program's topics range from book reviews to current events, but most programs are more news-oriented. As part of her internship, Sahibdeen has been assigned to write and produce one of the shows for "Urban Update."
"We are assigned the task to come up with a show topic, and we have to book all of the guests, write the scripts, the segments, and the teasers," Sahibdeen said. "My show airs Dec. 19 and is going to be about the U.S. perspective of American foreign policy. It will be about Bush's policy, how it has changed, and how it will change in the next four years."
While Sahibdeen does not know for sure what sector of the media she'll focus on in the future, she is sure that the media entertainment industry is where she belongs.
"I just prefer working more with people and getting out in the field," Sahibdeen said. "I would love to work for NBC or Viacom in either public relations or marketing, but I'll have to see what's available when I graduate in May."
