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.

PJ Olsen

As a baby boomer who graduated in 1981 (yes…that was 42 years ago!), although structured internships had started to emerge by that time, they were not promoted by the academic advisors at my alma mater. I don’t even recall knowing that those opportunities even existed back then! Read more>>

Anna Abrahams

Absolutely! I’d love to go back to my first marketing internship at a financial firm, but first, a little backstory. Picture this: I started my journey at LSU as a marketing major, completely oblivious to the world of graphic design. During my marketing internship, I quickly realized that people expected me to have design skills too, which proved frustrating since I didn’t have a clue about graphic design. Read more>>

Amie Nemec

I started a business called Perspective Cellars, which is a wine tasting room in downtown Fredericksburg, Texas. I loved offering education about wine and helping customers explore the world of wine. After a few years, I thought my next step should be learning to make wine. I knew I could take classes, but I also knew the best way to truly understand would be to get my hands dirty. My friend, Michael Barton, is the head winemaker at the local Hilmy Cellars and I liked his style of wines and his general understanding of wines. I asked if I could work as his unpaid intern during the harvest season in 2021 and surprisingly, he agreed. Read more>>

Abigail Dalton

I first learned about magnet therapy from a close friend back in Texas. We’d kept in touch since I relocated to Nashville in 2016 and it was interesting to learn that she and her husband had been traveling to Mexico to get him treated. For as long as I’ve known them, he has suffered from both PTSD and Gulf War Syndrome. I knew if they were making the efforts to travel that she had finally found an effective treatment that got her husband relief. To my surprise, it was SO effective that she began taking the steps to get certified herself to administer the therapy. Read more>>

Tracy Tucholski

The fall of my last year of college, I landed an internship at Madison Magazine – Madison, Wisconsin’s lifestyle and business publication highlighting local people, restaurants and events – 515 miles from my college pad, and where I wouldn’t know anyone. I was excited and I was anxious, but I made the leap, and packed what fit into my plum colored ’98 Saturn. At this point in my photography career, I only had experience covering stories for my college’s newspaper. I would be sent a topic to shoot on campus, and I would document, edit and send it in. There was team of staffers that would all access the newsroom at various points of the day, never to feel truly alone. Read more>>