Two of the best things that college students love to hear are the words “free” and “getting paid.” Getting something free is like waking up on Christmas morning to find presents under the tree from Santa Claus.

Receiving money is a big deal too, but that’s usually the result from working or having a job.

Another big part of college is obtaining internships, especially since many of those opportunities are only offered to college students.

The big lottery pick would be landing a paid internship, but those usually come very few and far between.

However, since I’ve been involved and focused in the media field, I’ve often heard of a stigma against taking internships.

I’ve come across many people who have advised to not sell yourself out,since in their view, it’s free labor for a company or an employer.

Well, this past summer, I had the opportunity to intern in the sports department at KHON2 News, a television news station in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Oddly enough, I landed the gig partially through Twitter.

Since I’m from Hawaii, I often tweet (mostly my frustrations) about the University of Hawaii Rainbow Warriors and Hawaii sports in general.

It was through there that the KHON2 sports director followed me and then later messaged me asking if I wanted to intern over the summer.

I also had a lot of help since a friend had interned there last summer so he was able to vouch for me.

Those are just two lessons that networking and connections really are important, and that social media can create opportunities so it’s key to make sure you have a fairly clean profile.

Future so bright he gotta close his eyes! #MAHALO to @SpncerHonda on smashing his summer internshi. #GreatKid #Cover2 pic.twitter.com/BzZJ03XylY

— Rob DeMello (@RobDeMelloKHON) August 24, 2015

While I was there, there was another intern who would help out every once in a while and he just so happened to be the son of the University of Hawaii’s athletics director.

When he left on his last day there, he half-jokingly said that he could help them out during the school year if they ever needed “cheap labor.”

Yes, one way to look at internships is that it is indeed cheap labor and free work for an employer, but it’s still a great opportunity to gain experience, enhance a resume and to further expand and grow a portfolio of work.

It’s always much easier to show something, rather than talk about it so when I apply for jobs or work opportunities, I can give them examples of the stuff I’ve done and say that it aired on TV or that it was published on their website.

In the short run, sure, maybe the internship didn’t result in getting paid, but it was still an invaluable experience.

Internships just depend on how much you plan on getting out of it.

Plus it motivated me to do so many things this upcoming school year so stay tuned with The Informer for some exciting content to come.