LINK internship
At Animas High School, all Juniors take two weeks off of school and pursue a 3 week-long internship at a business of their choice based off of what they might want to do for a living. We are required to have 30-40 hours a week so that it is basically a full-time job. During the internship you have to complete some sort of project that can show what you did overall during your internship.
My Internship
For my internship I decided to work with Durango Rivertrippers and Adventure Tours because I had recently found an interest in outdoor excursions and physical activity. This business has many guided tours such as Rafting tours through the Animas River, Mesa Verde tours, Jeep tours and 4x4 tours.
Durango Rivertrippers and Adventure Tours website: https://www.durangorivertrippers.com/
Durango Rivertrippers and Adventure Tours website: https://www.durangorivertrippers.com/
LINK Anticipation and Preparation
A few months before my LINK internship was about to start I thought that I had it all figured out. I had set up an internship at San Juan Basin Health because I thought that I wanted to take on a job in the therapy/ mental health field. After having that easily set up (because my mom knew one of the people that worked for the company), I decided last minute that I wanted to do something fun instead since I had just realized that being outdoors and exercising is a big passion of mine and I had also just gone on a few rafting trips that motivated me to look into jobs pertaining to such activities. I emailed at least 10 different rafting companies as fast as I could asking about possible internship opportunities. I explained why I wanted to undertake the responsibility of guiding trips and being outd5oors. 3 of the companies emailed back and said they would like to have me intern with them. Mild to Wild was one of the companies that said yes at first, so I then planned to work with Mild to Wild. I was set on that idea for a few weeks until right before the internship when Mild to Wild contacted me and told me that they wouldn't be able to have me do the internship and that I could only work with them full-time this summer. I went into panic mode because It was just a few days before my internship when I had heard this news. I quickly reached out to one of the other companies that had expressed a lot of interest in me, and thankfully they accepted my request last minute. Even though I was very stressed out from all of the changes in plans, I was excited to work for a rafting company because I love being outdoors and experiencing excursions in nature. I hoped to gain insight on how rafting businesses are run, how to raft guide, how to protect customers during trips, and just how to raft in general! I hoped that I would bring new young minded ideas into the business because I feel that I can have good ideas sometimes pertaining to how to set things up and run businesses. So, on May 19th, I started interning for Durango Rivertrippers and Adventure Tours!
On the first day it my internship (which was in the office located in downtown Durango, I learned how to take calls, put people on hold, and how to take a message. I started realizing that the company only wanted me for office work, which at first I decided to deal with. As time went on I had only been put on one rafting trip and I had been working full-time in the office, most of the time with nothing to do because my mentor didn't know what to have me do, and at the same time I wasn't very motivated since I started to realize that the company isn't very well set up and I don't like to do office work.,My mentor and I connected, probably due to the fact that she is very young/ close in age to me. This often caused us to get off track and also caused her to refrain from being the boss she should have been. She expressed a lot of leniency and friendliness due to this, and until the very end of my internship we interacted in this way, getting no work done at all. On the last day of my internship, she decided to fire me since we hadn't worked on much of anything and since I seemed very unmotivated.
My project
For my project, I was told to compile all of my social media posts into one page and add it to my portfolio (this portfolio!) Here are a few of my posts that went into my project.
Reflection
Strengths coming into LINK
Coming into LINK I was excited but nervous. I was excited to join a rafting business and potentially learn more about rafting, but nervous because I didn't know what I was going to be doing and Durango Rivertrippers and Adventure Tours wasn't the company that I wanted to join since I had been excited and ready for the Mild to Wild opportunity. When I first started off, I tried to persevere through my anxiety towards working in the little office. I used my communication skills and was attentive for the first few days when I was just getting the hang of things. At one point, I had no idea how to use a video program that they wanted me to work with, so I asked for help and accounted for myself.
Skills developed during LINK
During my internship I learned a lot about being professional, since during my time at Durango Rivertrippers I wasn't very professional. I started feeling annoyed at the company so I didn't put much effort in for a few days and then I had a talk with my boss about professionalism that really opened my eyes. I learned that even when something isn't exactly how you would want it and even when you don't want to do something at work, you still need to persevere and do what you can. I gained perseverance skills, professionalism skills, communication skills, and business insight.
It was definitely a learning experience for both me and my mentor. I think that going into an internship, there should be more communication beforehand pertaining to what the intern would actually be doing so that the intern can know if they are going to be happy woking with the company or not. I feel that if this communication is had and both the mentor and intern are in agreeance on what to do and what they will be doing, then a successful internship could be had. The reason my internship wasn't the best fit for me is because I didn't know that I would be working in the marketing/ advertisement field instead of actually rafting.
I learned a lot about myself after seeing this internship through. I learned that I never ever want to go into the marketing business, I learned what kind of company I DON'T want to have or be part of, and I learned more about how to persevere and be professional.
It was definitely a learning experience for both me and my mentor. I think that going into an internship, there should be more communication beforehand pertaining to what the intern would actually be doing so that the intern can know if they are going to be happy woking with the company or not. I feel that if this communication is had and both the mentor and intern are in agreeance on what to do and what they will be doing, then a successful internship could be had. The reason my internship wasn't the best fit for me is because I didn't know that I would be working in the marketing/ advertisement field instead of actually rafting.
I learned a lot about myself after seeing this internship through. I learned that I never ever want to go into the marketing business, I learned what kind of company I DON'T want to have or be part of, and I learned more about how to persevere and be professional.