Posted 2:49 p.m. Wednesday, July 22, 2015
UWL Career Services coordinator says internship experience is extremely important to a student’s college experience.
[caption id="attachment_42307" align="alignright" width="223"]
UW-La Crosse senior Erin Jahns[/caption]
By UW-L student intern Heidi Gempeler
At the end of the spring semester, UW-La Crosse senior Erin Jahns applied last minute for her dream internship through Byrdie Beauty, a beauty website based out of West Hollywood in Los Angeles.
Out of the blue, only 18 days prior to her start date, Jahns found out that she was hired as one of four editorial beauty interns for the summer. With that news, Jahns had to finish her final exams at UWL and immediately move to California.
“The weeks in between finals and moving to Los Angeles were the most stressful few weeks of my life!,” Jahns says. “I was so overwhelmed at the thought of moving to such a big city on my own where I knew absolutely no one.”
As an Editorial Beauty Intern, Jahns holds several responsibilities: writing content for the Byrdie website, researching products and finding supplementary imagery and videos for upcoming articles, organizing the beauty closet and putting articles into the Byrdie content management system prior to release. Jahns' managing editor made it clear that she wanted interns to have the opportunity to get bylines and accumulate a diverse and quality portfolio of work by the end of the summer, says Jahns says.
“When I saw my first byline, I completely geeked out. I felt like such a nerd, but it was so cool to see something that I wrote published on a site that I had been following for so long," she says.
As an English rhetoric and Writing major and Organizational and Professional Communication Studies minor at UWL, Jahns aspires to pursue writing or journalism within the beauty industry after graduation. Jahns is scheduled to graduate at the end of fall semester.
[caption id="attachment_42319" align="alignright" width="350"]
Byrdie Beauty office in Los Angeles.[/caption]
While Jahns is not paid for her internship, she will be receiving credit from her Byrdie Beauty experience that will go toward graduation. “I worked with Karolyn Bald in Career Services to receive credit for my internship,” Jahns says. “She is extremely helpful. I can’t sing her enough praises!”
Bald, UWL Career Services coordinator, finds that internship experience is extremely important to a student’s college experience.
“A student can get so much powerful experience through an internship,” she says. “It is essentially taking what is learned in the classroom and applying it into a real-life setting, and vice versa. When a student goes to apply for a job or graduate school, they can demonstrate that they have the knowledge, the skill and the ability.”
Jahns agrees with Bald. “I feel that my internship is helping me to improve as a writer, but I also think it's invaluable in terms of time management, balancing and prioritizing tasks, learning how to operate and flourish within a high-paced environment, and also just communicating with a variety of different people and through a variety of different channels,” Jahns says. “Working for Byrdie is such a hands-on experience, which is probably what I love and appreciate most about my internship.”
The initial stress of moving to the big city for the summer was well worth it, she adds.
“I love this internship. I look forward to coming to work each day," she says.
UW-La Crosse senior Erin Jahns[/caption]
By UW-L student intern Heidi Gempeler
At the end of the spring semester, UW-La Crosse senior Erin Jahns applied last minute for her dream internship through Byrdie Beauty, a beauty website based out of West Hollywood in Los Angeles.
Out of the blue, only 18 days prior to her start date, Jahns found out that she was hired as one of four editorial beauty interns for the summer. With that news, Jahns had to finish her final exams at UWL and immediately move to California.
“The weeks in between finals and moving to Los Angeles were the most stressful few weeks of my life!,” Jahns says. “I was so overwhelmed at the thought of moving to such a big city on my own where I knew absolutely no one.”
As an Editorial Beauty Intern, Jahns holds several responsibilities: writing content for the Byrdie website, researching products and finding supplementary imagery and videos for upcoming articles, organizing the beauty closet and putting articles into the Byrdie content management system prior to release. Jahns' managing editor made it clear that she wanted interns to have the opportunity to get bylines and accumulate a diverse and quality portfolio of work by the end of the summer, says Jahns says.
“When I saw my first byline, I completely geeked out. I felt like such a nerd, but it was so cool to see something that I wrote published on a site that I had been following for so long," she says.
As an English rhetoric and Writing major and Organizational and Professional Communication Studies minor at UWL, Jahns aspires to pursue writing or journalism within the beauty industry after graduation. Jahns is scheduled to graduate at the end of fall semester.
[caption id="attachment_42319" align="alignright" width="350"] Byrdie Beauty office in Los Angeles.[/caption]
While Jahns is not paid for her internship, she will be receiving credit from her Byrdie Beauty experience that will go toward graduation. “I worked with Karolyn Bald in Career Services to receive credit for my internship,” Jahns says. “She is extremely helpful. I can’t sing her enough praises!”
Bald, UWL Career Services coordinator, finds that internship experience is extremely important to a student’s college experience.
“A student can get so much powerful experience through an internship,” she says. “It is essentially taking what is learned in the classroom and applying it into a real-life setting, and vice versa. When a student goes to apply for a job or graduate school, they can demonstrate that they have the knowledge, the skill and the ability.”
Jahns agrees with Bald. “I feel that my internship is helping me to improve as a writer, but I also think it's invaluable in terms of time management, balancing and prioritizing tasks, learning how to operate and flourish within a high-paced environment, and also just communicating with a variety of different people and through a variety of different channels,” Jahns says. “Working for Byrdie is such a hands-on experience, which is probably what I love and appreciate most about my internship.”
The initial stress of moving to the big city for the summer was well worth it, she adds.
“I love this internship. I look forward to coming to work each day," she says.