Valuable Experiences Close to Home │ Kelsey Olson’s Internship
Students travel far and wide—oftenout of the state or even outside the country—to pursue internship opportunities.However, recent MBU graduate Kelsey Olsonexperienced her internship at her local , where she has worked for the past four years.With a degree inEnglishwith a minor inBusiness,Kelseywas able to apply boththebusiness andwritingprinciplesshe had learnedat MBU in afamiliar setting.
ThoughKelseychosetheEnglishdegreewhen she came to college, shedidn’tpursue abusinessminor until her junior year, soan internship was imperativefor her to learnthe skills necessaryto complete her degree.
“Iwasreally excitedtowork in a business setting and to get to use the skills I learned in my minor.I hadn’t had as much timewith thatas the average person spends on their minor,” she says.
Instead of taking another business class,Kelsey chose to do the internshipin order tofulfill the requirements for herBusinessminor.Sheknewthat the real-life application of her skills would benefit her as sheprepared to use them after college.
“I thought that the hands-on experience of an internship would be morebeneficial to me,” she says.“It was more flexible, and there weren’t as manydeadlines.My advisor for my Business minor, Dr.Drost,enabled me to make the experience my own.”
Business at Bath and Body Works
Since Kelsey had worked at Bath and Body Worksforthree and a halfyears at the time of her internship, shealready maintained a well-established relationship with her employers. This connection allowed her to effectively shadow the store managers and observe high-level decision-making.She mainlyconducted her normal dutiesas a store associate, but she alsobecame more involved with store managementas well.
“We have a Store Leadership Team (SLT), which consists ofthe head manager, an assistant manager, andfour keyholder managers,” Kelsey explains. “They all report to the district manager. I got to be more involved with their conversations, as well as the emails they were sending back and forth.”
“I was more in-tune with what was happening on the district level and the state level as far as future plansfor the store,”Kelsey shares.
In additionto shadowingthestore managers, Kelseyexperienced an unexpected changewhenthehead managersuddenlyquitat one pointduring the summer.She recalls thatthe manager’s resignationprompted the managerial team to step up andwork through the vacancy.
“It was tough for the store,” sheremembers. “But as far as doing an internship and observing management, it wasa valuable experiencefor meto see their flexibility in that way.”
Kelsey also discovered that she was the only person on the SLT team who possessed a management background and who had taken business and management classes. She knew business terms and used them in her interactions with the other managers. It also allowed her to apply principles from her classroom learning in real-life situations.
Textbook Principles to Real Life Situations
During her internship at Bath and Body Works,Kelsey actively used management strategies she had learned in her classes. One specific application arose outofan incidentthat had occurredwithin the leadership team.
“Another manager caused a conflict in our store after the head manager quit,” she recalls. “Through this, we learned about conflict resolution. I realized that being in a real-life situation isn’t as easy as reading a textbook.”
Kelsey also applied herorganizational leadership skillsinhow she worked with management. Being able to observe afront-linemanagement situation enabled her to flesh outthe knowledge she had learned in classes like Principles of Management.
The English Application
In addition to the managementskills,she had applied to her internship, Kelsey also usedthewritingabilitiesshegainedthrough her English majorto document her experiences.
“Every week I had to write a summary of what I had done the weekprior and what management had done,” she says. “Ihad to write about good observations—things that were goingreally well—as well as the things that could use improvement. Being an English major, I was used to writing papers all the time, so that wasreally helpful.”
Kelsey alsowrote three papers at the end of her internship, and her English background helped herinthat area.In addition,shebenefittedfrom the more practical skills she learned as well, such as time management and theability to interact with people.
A New Appreciation
Through her internship,Kelsey learned several valuable lessons and walked away with a new understanding of business and how it impacted her workplace. Perhaps one of the most memorableelementsof her internshipwasthe new respect she had for her managers.
“[I gained] a real respect for what the managers are doing at our store—the things they are doing for us behind the scenes,” she says.“That was huge.”
Kelsey learned how to work under pressure and keep up with conflicts in real-time. Taking the time to sort through a theoretical conflict in a classroom setting proved to be much different from working out an issue on the spot, as Kelsey soon realized.
“[I learned] how to deal with real-life situations in real-time,” she explains. “When someone speaks to you, you have to be ready for that and give an answer. It forced me to learn how to deal with conflict.”
Maintaining Faith
Throughout the summer, Kelsey alsomaintainedher walk with God andgrewspiritually through her experiences. As she dealt with conflict and facedtricky situations, Kelsey learned to lean on God for strength and to draw upon her Christianprinciplesas she communicated with others.Sheset a Godly example forher co-workers and the customers she interacted with. Even when she dealt with rude customers, shestrivedtopresent a Christ-like attitude in response.
“Especially with customers, I had to maintain that Christlikeness—I had tomaintain positivity[in order to]be a light,” Kelsey explains. “When people are watching you, especially knowing your testimony—that’s an area that I really had to be strong in. I had to lean into Christ and pray for that strength.”
At times, Kelsey would find herself prayingevenas she spoke with customers, asking God to give her the right words to say in thatsituation. She would also pray for guidance in handlingthedemanding situationsthat she faced.
“I also had to lean into God’s wisdom and not my own,” she says. “I had to realize that I’m not the one who knows best here. God was prepared even when I wasn’t, and I need to ask what He wants from this situation.”
Looking to the Future
At the beginning of the summer, Kelsey had planned to accept a job in August that would allow her to travel and write.Due to a change in plans, however, Kelsey decided to accept another job position close to home,while still working atBath and BodyWorks.Through her internship, she grewcloserwith her managers and her co-workers,andshe decided to stay atBath and Body Works.
“I have better relationships with these people,” Kelsey says. “These are my friends—not just my co-workers. I also have a deeper appreciation for the work everyone does there after spending so much time with management.”
The Value of an Internship
Kelseyfound her place close to home at Bath and Body Works,puttingher business skillseffectively into practice. Through her internship, Kelsey discovered her love for people and her ability to serve as an example of Christ in a lost world, allthe while finding fulfillment in what God haddirected her to do.
“I would say the biggest value of my internship was witnessing what we learned in class being applied in real life,” Kelsey asserts. “If I hadn’t done an internship, it wouldn’t have been as easy for me to recognize those principles, but now I’ve lived it.”
For more information on internships and their benefits, clickhere.