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Ben Lolli of Canton will spend four months tasting beers around the world - and being paid for it.

(World of Beer)

AKRON, Ohio - University of Akron graduate Ben Lolli has nabbed a dream internship -- being paid to drink beer around the world.

Lolli and three others were named a "Drink it Intern" by World of Beer, a Tampa, Florida-based bar chain.

They will each be paid $12,000 to travel the globe for four months, drinking beer and sharing experiences on social media.

Lolli, from Canton, received a degree in mass media from UA in 2010, according to his LinkedIn profile.

In recent years he has been documenting beer stories across the country as host, editor and producer in his beer web series, The Beer TrALE.

Currently he works at an ale house and brewery in Johnson City, Tennessee. Previous jobs have been in New Mexico, California, Montana, Idaho and Alaska.

Here is his video entry for the internship.

"This is a huge step toward a very big goal," Lolli, 27, said in a telephone interview with the Akron Beacon Journal. He is an assistant brewer at JRH Brewing Co. and a bartender at a local ale house.

That ultimate goal is to host a traveling beer show on a major television network, he told the newspaper.

"For my work to be recognized by a larger company and organization like World of Beer is just fantastic," he said."I'm really honored to be part of their team."

The other interns are Alison Grasso of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Jamaal "Scoop" Lemon and Shep Jenkins of Washington D.C.

More than 7,000 people who submitted videos or applied in person for the internships, the newspaper said.

Lolli will travel to breweries in California, Alabama, Kentucky, Oregon, Ireland, England and Scotland, he told the newspaper.

"I'm not a brewmaster or a beer judge or anything like that," he said. "I'm just a regular guy who enjoys good beer, going to cool places and meeting good people."

To follow his travels, go to worldofbeer.com/drinkitintern.