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.

Karla Gruss

During my master’s, I interned at a major fashion house—an opportunity so in demand it was unpaid and came with a notoriously toxic work environment. In my first week alone, I worked over 20 extra hours, spent the entire weekend in the office, and received no proper introduction or training. But I knew the key was to seek out my own opportunities. For any young designer, this hunger—to grow, to connect, to be seen—is essential. Read more>>

Jennifer Spurgeon

While in college studying photography, I knew that I needed real life experience photographing weddings before I would be comfortable shooting a wedding on my own. Weddings are a once in a lifetime event, so I wanted to be prepared. I worked as a second shooter with another local wedding photographer for a couple of years. I helped her photograph weddings, as well as edit and do some business tasks. This helped me feel more confident when I officially started my business. Read more>>

Michael Barnette

Throughout Graduate school, I was told to function as a robot in sessions with clients and not show much emotion. I continued these teachings when I began my internship and practicum program, and was having difficulty connecting with my clients and building an authentic rapport. This went on for a few weeks until one day, I was having a group supervision session with some colleagues, and our shared supervisor asked the group if it was okay to cry in a session with a client. Being the youngest person in the group, I was so eager to answer the question that my hand shot up immediately. I answered, ” Absolutely not, you should be able to control your emotions and focus on what the client needs during the session”. Read more>>