An internship looks good on any college student's future resume - but a certain internship might be the only thing on two CMU students' resumes.

Tim Burger and Timothy Doescher were chosen from thousands of applicants all over the U.S. for the prestigious opportunity to intern at the White House last year.

The two CMU students had intangibles that set them apart from the rest of the pack, said Larry Sych, political science professor and internship program director.

"They had fine credentials," Sych said. "The White House seeks to have some diversity in the intern pool. They can't target all of the interns toward the Ivy League schools. Then there's this recognition that they want diversity so they look at schools like CMU. That's an advantage."

It is an advantage that Burger, a 36-year-old graduate student from Charlevoix, never thought he could have.

"Most interns are in their mid-20s or early-20s, so even to do that, I was the elder statesman of interns," Burger said.

Burger worked as a project manager for a road building company in Petoskey before a historic presidential ceremony caught his eye one day and he was pulled into the world of politics.

"I decided to go into political science after President (George W.) Bush's inauguration back in January 2005," he said. "Just to start over from scratch and a year later to end up in the White House is very exciting and humbling."

Doescher, a Lake Orion senior, echoed Burger's sentiments on the humbleness of the whole experience, but said he was confident he was the right man for the job.

"I just knew I was supposed to be there," Doescher said.

Doescher, who interned from January to May 2006, had several duties on the job.

"I did a lot of research - research on people who were going to meet the president and research on organizations that were going to be teaming up with the president," he said. "It was my job to 'vet' all of them thoroughly and present a report to my boss in a rather timely fashion."

Burger, who interned from September to December 2006, worked in the office of presidential messages, where he was responsible for taking calls from different religious groups and other organizations who wanted messages sent out for certain milestone anniversaries and religious holidays.