An Arts & Letters scholarship received through MSU’s College of Arts & Letters helped make a New York City internship possible for junior Professional Writing major Emily Claus.

The award significantly aided Claus’ ability to participate in the New York City Study Away Internship Program last summer.

As part of the program, Claus moved to New York City to work as an intern for Beaufort Books Inc., an independent publishing firm based in Manhattan.

“Living in New York City was amazing, but my internship was unpaid and New York City is expensive,” Claus said. “It was great to have the scholarship money to help with things like transportation and exploring the city.”

Claus’ internship was coordinated through a collaboration between MSU’s Study Away Program and the Academic Internship Council (AIC) in New York. The organization helps students find internships, coordinates interviews, and sets up housing in New York University dorms.

“Doing my internship through the study away program meant that I would be going with an entire group of MSU students, so I wouldn’t be there alone,” Claus said. “It was also very comforting to know where I would be living and to not have to figure that out on my own.”

The internship provided Claus with a range of opportunities, including reading manuscript submissions, editing children’s books, and coordinating author communications for author Jennifer Armentrout.

My major prepared me so well for my internship because there’s so much variety in the program.

“The very first thing Beaufort asked me to do when I got there was redesign the PR newsletter that the company sent out weekly,” Claus said. “That was a very interesting experience because, although it wasn’t editing, this was a skill I had learned in my Professional Writing classes, so I was prepared.”

Learning a range of skills in her classes is Claus’ favorite thing about her Professional Writing major.

“My major prepared me so well for my internship because there’s so much variety in the program,” she said. “There’s visual design, editing, HTML and CSS, and anything else you could image. It’s so versatile and there’s so much to do within the major, so I love it.”

In addition to her New York City experience, Claus also is the Editor-in-Chief of Exceptions Journal, a journal for individuals with visual impairments, and she works for MSU’s Writing Center.

“The Writing Center has helped me in my career path because I do a lot of editing,” she said. “There is a lot of reading of other people’s writing, knowing what you can do with it, and then learning how to communicate with people about their work.”

Claus will continue to use her writing and editing skills this summer in an internship for Revue Magazine in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she will explore and write articles about local hotspots in downtown Grand Rapids.

Written by Alexandria Drzazgowski, Professional Writing Major