One of the highlights of Elizabeth Cornett's summer internship came this week during her assignment at the aquatics center at the Olympics.
It gave Cornett, 20, an opportunity to watch swimmer Michael Phelps and see "America take the gold."
For Samantha Cain, a fellow intern who graduated with Cornett in 2010 from Lexington Catholic High School, it's an ongoing thing. She is working at the Olympics in the building that hosts the quarterfinal, semifinal and final rounds of the basketball competition.
That means Cain, 20, gets to watch former University of Kentucky men's basketball star Anthony Davis on the U.S. team.
"I am wearing my Bow to the Brow shirt under my uniform every day for the five days that the basketball teams are here in hope that I will run into Anthony and he will sign it," said Cain. "It would literally make my life."
In London with Cornett and Cain is Logan Matthews, 22, who graduated from Henry Clay High School in 2008. The three Lexingtonians are studying sport and entertainment management at the University of South Carolina.
They are living in a camp outside the Olympic Village and working for an Australian cleaning and waste management company that is keeping the Olympic grounds pristine.
"It teaches you a lot about the world and yourself," said Cornett.
She and the others went through a competitive interview process, they said.
"Overall our job is to make sure that our staff efficiently cleans the facilities to prepare them for all the different events taking place throughout the day," Cornett said.
Matthews recently graduated from college but is finishing the internship. He said he is managing more than 200 workers and six team leaders.
Matthews works at a help desk receiving calls and reporting what areas in the park need cleaning, and typing reports.
"I am staying in a camp with over 1,200 staff members," he said. "We sleep in cabins with 10 people to a room and have portable showers and toilets. We also have a very big office in the camp, as well as a dining hall and a recreation room with a bar! I absolutely love it! I can't complain at all."
The three arrived in Europe on June 1. The women will come home Aug. 17 and Matthews will return in September.
The interns said the work is demanding, but they have had some time to tour.
Cornett went to Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee celebration and traveled to Barcelona, Spain.
Cain went to Wimbledon and as a result thinks she might want to work at a tennis venue.
At the Olympics, she has worked on payroll and purchase orders, and the scheduling of employees in addition to supervisor work. Like the other interns who went to high school in Lexington, part of Cain's job is to report anything that needs to be fixed around the venue.
"I get to truly see what a venue manager does and experience all the exciting behind-the-scene things that go on during an event," she said.
Valarie Honeycutt Spears: (859) 231-3409. Twitter:@vhspears.
