When asked ‘What did you do this summer,’ Cory Schaeffler has a great answer: Interned for NBC at the Olympics in Beijing.
Schaeffler, a senior business management major, went to New York City two years ago to interview for the position. Since then, he worked to complete the paperwork required. And all that advance planning paid off. From July 28–Aug. 27, Schaeffler was in Beijing working fulltime.
“I was working in the research department looking up bios and stats and putting together binders of prior results from Athens, Sydney and other competitions,” Schaeffler says.
His work provided NBC talent like Cris Collinsworth and Bob Costas with the background information they needed on athletes.
NBC put Schaeffler up in a hotel next to the Bird’s Nest. When he wasn’t working, an all-access pass allowed him to watch the games.
“As soon as I was done with work I would have a chance to go to any event that was going on that night. That was pretty awesome,” he says.
Schaeffler saw much of Beijing during his time in China, and he took a tour to see the Great Wall on a day a local resident said was the clearest it had been in three years. A gondola took the group up just 500 steps from the top. Schaeffler and two others out of the group of 10 walked the rest of the way.
“Otherwise it would have been 500 steps of regret,” he says.
Back at DU and settling into the fall quarter, Schaeffler says the experience will stay with him.
“It’s definitely opened my eyes in the sense of the international aspect. The way of life in China is very fast paced. There were so many people there. For every question you had there were six people to help you.”
And the experience of working full time isn’t something he’ll soon forget.
“It helped me mature a lot.”