Internships and apprenticeships, when done right, give interns and apprentices life long lessons. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, these opportunities aren’t accessible to many and so we wanted to invite folks who have had these experiences to share some of the lessons they’ve learned.

J. Branden Garland

I was lucky to be selected for an amazing internship while I was in my final year at New York Chiropractic College, now called the Northeast College of Health Sciences. Living on Long Island, NY, I traveled 75 minutes each way to work in Riverhead, NY at South Shore Neurologic Associates (SSNA), a multidisciplinary chronic pain clinic that handled neurologic issues, chronic pain, and movement diseases. That experience was under Dr. Ralph Mangels, who challenged me with higher level thinking, constant learning, and elevating chiropractic to what it should be as an integral part of a complete healthcare practice. Read more>>

Tanisha Taylor

This takes me back to a time in my life when I struggled to find my place in the professional workforce, in my hometown. When I was away, I had professional jobs. Returning home I wouldn’t have thought it would be this challenging, by this time I was a little bit older and more educated. I applied for employment and obtained several interviews but couldn’t land a job. After getting frustrated with that process over and over again. I decided that I needed to get more training. Read more>>

Sarah Deacon

Developing Skills and Cultivating Your Brand. Starting out as a Cosmetology apprentice, I was filled with excitement to begin working at my first salon. I wanted to learn anything and everything about the industry. I remember not wanting to miss a detail when it came to interacting with clients, formulation, and application. Through much trial and error, eventually, I began to develop my own set of skills and clientele. Read more>>

Khameron Auerbach

So this past summer, I worked as a Production/Fashion Assistant at Flaunt Magazine: a fashion and culture magazine with a heavy emphasis on production and editorial work. I have worked with other magazines before, but this was the first time I was working in person (vs remotely), and with a bigger publication (as most of the other ones I’ve worked with have been smaller, more local magazines on a much smaller scale). Being there, I learned a lot about what kind of production work a smaller-run magazine entails and also about what I wanted, and also didn’t want, out of my next job. In my job, I was in the office half the time, and out of the office on set the other half. In office, I did a lot of research and was known for being particularly very good at it. Read more>>

Kelsey Martin

During my internship at USF, my mentor (Jason Swisher) and I were talking about my future. I told him that I wanted to label myself as OGKILLAKELS but I wasn’t sure if it’d be received as “professional.” At the time, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to design or if I wanted to shoot. He asked me if I really cared about that? The people who are going to support you will support my brand because I AM a professional–no matter the name. I’m not sure if Jason realizes how much that gave me the confidence to be who I wanted to be as a creative.