Internships with Berklee

Often what happens in education is that students are asked to learn by observation, listening or watching. But one of the best ways to learn anything is to experience it, first hand, by doing! Berklee understands the power of learning by doing and has a number of opportunities for students to work "in the field". Our Office of Experiential Learning (OEL) helps students with service learning and internship opportunities.

The OEL’s goal is to provide practical learning opportunities where students can deliberately connect their Berklee curriculum in a work or volunteer setting. All programs are for college credit and some require application approval and acceptance into the specific program.

We have a range of programs that include:

• Introductory Internship
• Service Learning
• Los Angeles Internship Program
• Summer London Internship Program
• Major specific Internship

For more information on these programs, please visit www.berklee.edu/oel.

You can read more about the LA Internship Program:

http://www.berklee.edu/news/596/l-a-internship-program-a-springboard-to-the-musi

Follow us MySpace and Facebook:

Add the OEL as a friend on MySpace: www.myspace.com/berkleeoel

Become a fan of the OEL on Facebook: Office of Experiential Learning - Berklee College of Music

Off-Campus Housing Support

On Friday June 12^th, 60+ students who are entering Berklee for the Fall 2009 semester and 35+ of their parents, guardians and guests will visit Berklee for the one day Berklee Life Off Campus (BLOC) workshop presented by the Student Activities Center. The SAC has three primary goals for the day.

The first goal is to provide attendees with critical information for searching for apartments in the Boston area including what to know before signing a lease. There are great deals, landlords and realtors our there but there are bad ones as well. A presentation by Kunevich & Lau Realty will provide attendees with the knowledge and tools to make good decisions in their search.

The second goal is to introduce non-residential entering students to each other as a way to begin to build community amongst them. Knowing and seeing that they are not alone as a first semester student living off campus is a huge step in achieving comfort before they arrive for classes in August. Moreover, at last year’s June Off Campus Housing Orientation some students who met through our small group sessions went on to find an apartment over the summer and live together their first year.

The third goal is to begin to allay some of the fears that parents, guardians, and even students have of living on their own – many for the first time – in this city. Many calls to our front desk are from parents concerned about sending their child to live off-campus. For this goal, our best line of defense are students who themselves were in the same situation in first year. Over lunch, current Berklee students will share their experiences about searching for apartments, moving in, commuting throughout the city, and more. Attendees will hear success stories as well as stories that are educational in terms of situations to avoid.

Advisors from the Office of Admissions, Paul Noonan from Public Safety, professional and student staff from the Student Activities Center, Peer Advisors, and others will be on hand throughout the day to offer our perspective during sessions and to interact with attendees informally between sessions.

Many thanks to Admissions, FYSAP, Auxiliary Services, and Dining Services for their support creating and executing this workshop.

If you run into BLOC attendees next Friday and you have a useful “life in Boston” anecdote or one that might assuage their fears, please pull them aside and share.

For more information about BLOC visit http://www.berklee.edu/housing/off_campus.html where you can download a pdf of the advertisement.

Contact the Student Activities Center at x2560 with questions.

Tamia Rashima Jordan, M.Ed.

Assistant Director Orientation and Student Support Services

SWEET MUSIC CAREER ACCELERANT

The mission of Berklee's Career Development Center is to provide expert guidance, leading-edge resources and professional development experiences to a diverse student body for the achievement of students' music career-related goals. Its overall focus is on music career management rather than a one-time job link. Students can get one-on-one advising, tap into its vast library of resources, attend job recruitment events, connect with alumni through the Berklee Career Network and participate in numerous career-building workshops.

At the beginning of February 2009, Berklee was approached (via Jim Odgren) about the possibility of hosting a "Jazz Talent Search".  Compass Management UK, in conjunction with Universal Records UK wanted to put together a "hip, young jazz band" fronted by two singers (one male, one female).  The band would have the full backing of Universal and would spend this summer in London recording an album and then touring in the fall in support of the album.

The Career Development Center coordinated auditions through Compass Management.  A large number of Berklee students submitted their audition materials to Compass Management.  After reviewing said materials, Compass Management selected ~40 students for the first round, which occurred March 28th - March 29th. After Compass Management flew-in to Boston and auditioned those students, they selected 7 Berklee students for a second and final round of auditions which occurred when they flew-in April 18th - April 19th.  During the second round, the A&R rep (Tom Lewis) from Universal Records UK was also present.

Ultimately, three Berklee students were selected to be members of this seven member group!  They are:

   Jeffrey Fajardo - drums

         Matthias Minquet - guitar

         Manami Morita - piano

The band will be called "The New Capitols" and their website is going to be www.thenewcapitols.com (it's not live, yet).  They will be blogging, tweeting, etc. their experience.

BTW, Compass went to other colleges here in the US for auditions but none were as successful or included as many final candidates as Berklee. This college rocks (and scats) - around the world!

-Peter Spellman, Director, The Career Development Center

Follow us on Twitter...

We feel like our blog is probably where we'll spend most of our energies because what we have to say usually is more complex than a few characters. Nonetheless, you can find us now on Twitter.

We'll hang out there every now and then at: https://twitter.com/Berklee_Enroll

The Admissions Challenge

Within the space of just these past few weeks, Berklee's Office of Admissions has bid a fond farewell ("and don't forget to stay in touch"!) to the largest graduating class in the college's history, admitted one of the largest and most gifted entering classes for the summer and fall semesters in the college's history, and engaged in an intensive two-day retreat to examine both our long-term future and the steps we can take in this upcoming year to take our operation to the next level - higher - faster - louder,  as we say here;-)  And the theme that resonates for us again and again is...humility.  Berklee's Office of Admissions, and indeed all of our administrative colleagues at the college, bare an awesome responsibility.  One that we are most proud to bare, and one that brings pause again and again each year as we select our entering class and almost in the same breath watch the entering class from four years prior cross the stage to Hi-5 the likes of David Bowie, Anita Baker, Sting, Melissa Etheridge, Smokey Robinson, Gloria Estefan, Wayne Shorter, The Edge and a litany of other celebrities who are thrilled to stand there and shake hands with over 800 Berklee graduates.  Don't they have better things to do?  What do they see?  Why are they there?

For those of us involved in recruiting our class each year, the answer to the question is blatantly obvious.  They know the value of networking in the music industry, and it is a thrill for them to meet, at this seminal point in our graduate's lives, with the future leaders of the industry.  We are all familiar with the "six degrees from Kevin Bacon" theory.  In the music industry, you may not even get to step three before Berklee comes into the picture.  Fact, not fiction.

So, each year our challenge is great and our mission is clear.  Find them.  Bring them.  Nurture them.  Graduate them.  Because the "them" we find, bring, nurture, and graduate will make all the difference.  Both today at Berklee and tomorrow in the future industry they will create.

Damien Bracken

Director of Admissions

Summer Semester Begins

Orientation began today for our entering summer semester students.  It's an exciting time for all of us in the enrollment area as we welcome a new group from around the world, to Boston.  Activities for students, and those whose parents could join us, are occurring throughout the day.  Students will continue to find orientation help over the next few days with classes starting next week. 

Since we start this semester in May, most of the students beginning with us are either transfer students from another college, or international students who have a different academic calendar.

In other words, traditional high school graduates will have to wait until September!  

Beginning at the End?

As we begin this blog about enrollment, with something of a focus on admission (beginning), ironically, we at Berklee just experienced our "end". Yesterday was our commencement, the formal end of a long and challenging road for over 800 students who completed requirements for our diploma or degree.  Doubly ironic, we call "graduation" commencement, from the french, "to start".  And so it is for our graduates both an ending of a phase in their lives with us at Berklee, but also a beginning, a starting point.

Motown legend Smokey Robinson, our Commencement speaker and honorary doctorate recipient, encouraged students to use the international language of music to speak to the world.  Linda Ronstadt, another honoree,  spoke eloquently of the transcendent power of music while merengue superstar and Berklee alumnus Juan Luis Guerra emotionally acknowledged his wife and children and his native Dominicans for the honor.  Noted producer and sound engineer George Massenburg encouraged graduates to be part of the next generation of musicians who will take sound quality to a higher level.

A few links here:

1)  Boston Globe featuring Smokey

2)  Telecinqo coverage of Juan Luis Guerra

3)  Berklee Page on Honorees

4)  Berklee's Commencement Page