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While some college students spend their summers lounging poolside, DU students are chasing opportunities that set them apart. Whether conducting research, interning abroad, or gaining hands-on experience in their fields, they’re using the summer months to explore careers, build skills, and make an impact.

A Summer at the Museum

Beau Anderson, a rising fourth-year history major from Kansas City, Missouri, spent the summer interning at the National Archives Museum in Washington, D.C.

Over the summer, Anderson served as a content development intern within the education department, educating museum visitors on the nation’s history through historical and archived documents.��

Anderson, who hopes to become a history teacher, has long had an interest in education but wanted to explore how historical storytelling happens outside of the classroom. That curiosity led him to apply for a museum internship.

Anderson found the internship with support from Hillary Smith, associate professor in the Department of History. Though the internship was unpaid, Beau was able to pursue it thanks to funding from the DU Summer Internship Award, the History Department, and the Pioneer Leadership Program.

“It showed me how education can look outside the classroom, how the museum is a powerful counterpart to the classroom,” Anderson says. “I think it's really important to have a museum where everyone from the public can have the full history represented to them.”

At the Archives, Anderson found himself drawn to exhibits that presented a more complete, sometimes uncomfortable, picture of the past.

“There are two documents right by each other—the Statue of Liberty deed of gift, and the Chinese Exclusion Act, the part of the exhibit is speaking about immigration and how the US is a nation of immigrants. And you can tell that people are connecting it with what’s going on in the news today,” Anderson says. “Some people might not have seen that in classrooms, or some students might not know about that. So, it's a really good opportunity to see the full picture and to be open about telling our history.”

Engineering a Medical Breakthrough

Mechanical engineering major Marisela Simental, a rising third-year student from Aurora, Colorado, spent her summer much closer to home—in a DU research lab working on early detection methods for brain hemorrhages.

Her work with the Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging (KIHA) focused on Capillary Zone Electrophoresis, a technique used to analyze blood samples. Over the summer, Simental was tasked with preparing samples for analysis, operating the device to analyze the sample’s makeup, and ensuring that the machine is running properly, equipping her colleagues with the data they need for earlier detection of brain hemorrhages.

It wasn’t her first summer in the lab—last year, she helped build the system she now uses daily. While the work can be repetitive, Simental finds motivation in the impact.

“The results are meaningful,” she says. “It has the potential to help a lot of people. And seeing how research works and how people collaborate, that’s been really exciting.”

Simental encourages other students to take advantage of research opportunities—even if it’s outside their comfort zone.

“Just try it,” she says. “Even if you don’t think research is for you, you might end up loving it—or at least learn something valuable.”

A Dream Internship Abroad

For finance major Andrew Bachrodt, a rising fourth-year finance major from South Carolina and Illinois, summer was a chance to return to a passion: traveling abroad.

“I absolutely fell in love with being abroad,” Bachrodt says. “I also did two other study abroad programs, surfing in Nicaragua and food and culture in Japan, and every time it just opened my world. I was heavily motivated, and every single time I left one of those trips, I just knew I needed to find a way to get back.”

That opportunity came in the form of an internship with ecoPortal in Auckland, New Zealand, working with the company’s CEO on data migration and forecasting.

Bachrodt’s experience abroad was made possible, in part, by the��, which provides stipends for students doing unpaid internships with startups and nonprofit organizations.��.

The internship also helped him sharpen his technical skills and helped prepare him for his career after DU.

At DU, students turn their passions into real-world experience that prepares them for life after graduation. With support from faculty mentors, funding opportunities, and a culture that values hands-on learning, DU students make the most of their summers. Whether on Capitol Hill, in research labs, or at international offices, they’re gaining the skills, clarity, and confidence to build meaningful careers with purpose.