Oh, the Places You Will Go

In response to Olivia’s and Adam’s blogs, I can honestly say that I was lucky to have the opportunity to work and learn from such a talented, dedicated, and focused group of college students. The interns here are dedicated. They are qualified. They are knowledgeable in their areas of study. And they don’t take themselves too seriously. Working together, we have learned that we are going places.

I myself have done some reflection as I’ve started preparing to write my internship experience paper for school. I think my paper will focus on a larger lesson I’ve learned this summer: just because I’ve had one, nine-week internship doesn’t mean I hold the keys to career success in my hands. I will continue to grow both personally and professionally with each position I hold.

Since high school, my parents and teachers have stressed the importance of relationship building and being an effective communicator. I took a course last semester solely dedicated to learning how to communicate and network. Coming into this internship, I thought I knew everything about interacting with other people because I had just taken a great class that I learned a lot in. Boy, was I wrong. It wasn’t until I started interning at Liggett that I realized that relationship building and communicating is harder than it sounds. Through my interactions with the people here at Liggett, interns and full-time professionals alike, I’ve learned more about communicating by observing good communicators in action than I could learn from any textbook.

So I encourage all all college students, regardless of major, to interview as much as they can and talk to as many experienced professionals as they can. This internship has given me a different perspective about my career, and has taught me that no college course can replace the knowledge gained from an experience in a professional setting.

So, as you plan your future careers, remember to get involved in a professional or volunteer organization or give an internship a shot. If you get yourself out there as much as you can, you will go many places – I can almost guarantee it.



Marie D.
Program Management Intern