My daughter just completed a five week winter internship. A Grinnell College alum hired four students. You can read the owners story of the internship here.
My daughter learned about the creator economy, personalizing emails and pitches, and tailoring a marketing message. During Saturday morning meetings, Hallie learned about business structure, negotiation skills, resumes, and a number of things she didn’t want to hear from me. I would love to help her learn business skills, marketing, finance, tax planning, business structure. I can nudge and coax but it has limits.
A number of things struck me about her internship. First, she developed business and life skills and literacy she was not going to learn at a liberal arts school. She was learning from a recent graduate of a liberal arts school who knows the gaps and deficits of his education.
Second, she was paid a decent wage. She made as much as I would make all summer in high school during her winter break.
Third, the alum was shipping product. He graduated in May of 2020. He wrote a book and sold 500 plus digital copies before progressing to a physical copy. He did not take three years talking about doing it. He wrote a book and put it out there. He hired people to ramp up his sales. And he is not even 12 months out of school
I am impressed. I hoped she took notes.