UNC Admissions Blog: Internships & Study Abroad - Student Spotlight: Hunter Motte and Jenny Bingham

After that last final exam of spring semester, it’s done for the summer right...? Well, not exactly. Many students at UNC extend their educational learning from the classroom to the real world with study abroad programs and career-related internships, and in some cases, both.

Two students in the Entrepreneurship minor, Jenny Bingham and Hunter Motte, are making the most of their summers in New York City and Beijing, respectively.

Hunter is interning for ClubFootball China while taking classes as part of his minor, including a Chinese language class taught almost entirely in Chinese! What he’s liked most about studying and interning abroad is the chance to see exactly what another culture is like.

“UNC allows us as students to see the world in a different way after complete immersion in a society that some only read about in textbooks.”

Hunter said that the coolest thing he’s done by far was hike and camp on an unrestored section of the Great Wall. He and his group met people from across the world including Australia, Singapore, Germany and Belgium, and hiked for four hours without seeing a hint of tourism. They ate barbecued chicken hearts, lamb and potatoes cooked by Chinese locals, then set up camp on the Wall.

Jenny, on the other hand, took a slightly different approach to her summer “abroad.” She’s been spending it in the Big Apple, interning for PR Consulting, a brand imaging and public relations development firm for fashion, beauty and lifestyle industries. Her internship has brought her renewed motivation, not just for school, but for life in general.

Although it sounds cliche, she told us that New York City is always buzzing and if you seize the right opportunities, you can end up on a rooftop 30 stories high watching the sunset or riding scooters around Google’s headquarters. She suggests that for students interested in Public Relations or Advertising, networking in Manhattan is key. Already this summer she’s worked on accounts connected to Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Beyoncé! Even if fashion isn’t your thing, she thinks that being in the city opens your eyes to all kinds of college and young professionals who are so motivated to be successful.

“It’s like being surrounded by driven Carolina students, but throw in a couple 4 a.m. nights, skyscrapers, celebrities and constant adrenaline. The saying, ‘The city that never sleeps,’ is 100 percent spot-on and is perfect for college students because after all - all nighters are our thing.”