Rachel Helling’s friends laughed at her when she told them freshman year that she planned to work for “Saturday Night Live” someday soon.

Helling, a Kansas City, Mo., junior, had no experience in film or sketch writing at that time, but as she sat in her room in Hashinger Hall watching Andy Samberg perform on “SNL,” she was inspired and determined to make her prediction come true.

Six months later, Helling was turned down for an internship with “SNL,” but she did receive an internship at “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”

“I ended up getting something else that was equally as awesome,” she said. “Maybe more so.”

Helling moved to New York after her freshman year before she was offered the internship at “The Daily Show” in October 2007. She had always wanted to move to the city and finally did when a friend said she would move there too. They lived with another friend who was in New York.

Helling left the University of Kansas and transferred to Hunter College in New York. In October 2007, she applied for internships at the major late-night comedy talk shows such as “SNL,” “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report.”

Helling received a call from “The Daily Show” the same day she faxed her resume. She interviewed at the show a couple days later, and on Oct. 31, she was hired for the internship. She began working at the show in early January 2008 .

Helling said she was impressed by the host, Jon Stewart, during her first few weeks at work. She said he was more involved in the writing and production of the show than she expected.

“I thought he’d ignore us, because he was Jon Stewart, but he was very cool to us. I was very star struck at first,” Helling said. “I totally got used to it. Then he was just my boss, just a cool guy.”

Each day, the interns who worked at the show full-time, like Helling, would rotate to a new job. Helling said most days she would do the typical intern grunt work ­— getting breakfast for the crew and running scripts back and forth from Comedy Central’s headquarters and the studio — but other days were more interesting.

On one day that Helling refers to as the worst day of her life, she was sent out with John Oliver, one of “The Daily Show” correspondents, and a producer to break into the FOX news studio.

After the cameraman finished filming the segment, Helling was sent to retrieve his bicycle from the stand to which it was chained. But when she put the key in the lock, it snapped in half.

She then had to explain to the crew what happened and found a security guard inside of Rockefeller Center who helped her.

“It was a very intern thing to do,” she said. “But I saw Paula Abdul inside Rockefeller. That was very cool.”

Abdul was not the only star Helling would see while working for “The Daily Show.” Helling said she saw former “Daily Show” correspondent Stephen Colbert and Conan O’Brien.

Helling finished her internship in June and moved back home in July.

But her journey with “The Daily Show” was not over yet. Helling’s father was asked to travel to Denver for the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 25 to Aug. 28, on behalf of The Kansas City Star. When she learned “The Daily Show” would tape in Denver during the convention, she asked one of the show’s producers if she could tag along and have her internship back for the week.

This time around, Helling was not asked to be an intern, she was a paid employee. Her name even appeared in the show’s credits.

“The first time I saw that I freaked out,” she said.

Once, she was asked to stand in for correspondent Aasif Mandvi during rehearsal while he was on assignment. Helling said that was her favorite memory of working at the show.

Her father, David Helling, who is a reporter for the Kansas City Star and a former reporter for KCTV 5 News, said he was astonished when Rachel told him about the opportunity.

Helling’s friends were also surprised, but one of her friends who was watching “SNL” with her when she made her decision to apply for the internships, said she knew Rachel would make good on her declaration.

“I was like, ‘Rachel, of all my friends, you would do that,’” Sarah Eyers, Kansas City, Mo., junior, said.

Helling did not want to return to Kansas at first , but she said she was glad she came back to finish her degree.

“You know when you live in New York, it can wear you down,” Helling said. “Sometimes I would say, I wish I was just back in Kansas at a frat party, because I really had to grow up. In some ways I missed being a student, so it’s good to be back.”

— — Edited by Ramsey Cox