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.

Abby Pfaff

I had several internships while I studied at the University of North Texas, but my favorite was my photography internship at the Dallas Zoo. I’m primarily a portrait photographer (for humans!), so I thought that it would be a very fun challenge to photograph animals. I spent the summer before my senior year at the zoo most weekdays and I learned so much! I interned with Cathy Burkey and she took me behind the scenes to get up close and personal with the animals. It was so cool! Read more>>

Dr. Tristaca McCray

A San Diego organization selected me for a community internship in 2011. Most of the other interns chose safe projects with established community leaders. I took a risk in asking to work with a new development community group, since it gave me the opportunity for leading edge experience to create something new. We were collaborating with experimental community action tools and technologies that were not yet adopted internally for youth and teen projects in under-served communities. Read more>>

Amanda Mohammed

My ambition has led me around the world, sometimes unplanned. For example, my medical school training was not traditional. I lived on the island of Dominica in the Caribbean for 16 months. Most only know of this island from the movie, Pirates of the Caribbean, however it is much more than the setting of a popular movie, for it was there that I began my official journey in medicine. Read more>>

Mechelle Tucker

Early in my career, I was so passionate about gaining work experience and sharpening my skills that I put myself in quite a few positions to learn and grow, working for many small to medium size businesses as a intern and a apprentice. Being both a intern and a apprentice in my career has provided me with priceless professional knowledge and skills, covering: operational management, marketing, public relations, organizational development, project management, leading and managing small businesses. Read more>>

Alexis Garrett

While in college, I was struggling in one of my sculpture classes–it was a foundry course and I was in a state of serious “artist block”. Everything I was creating was two dimensional—-it was a 3 dimensional sculpture course and I just couldn’t make anything work in that 3rd dimension. My professor suggested that I intern for a local jeweler, who was also a sculptor. Read more>>