Gabby Bernstein started a small business selling pop culture memorabilia and developed skills in website and graphic design, marketing, and time management.
What kind of work did you do throughout your internship experience?
My internship was starting a small business selling shot glasses promoting candidates for the 2024 election. I completed a huge variety of work throughout this experience. I learned so many new skills such as website construction, photography, graphic design, marketing and so much more. Not only did I learn all of these transferable skills, but I also learned how to be a business owner, which required a ton of organization and determination. While this internship class was only during the fall semester, it is continuing for me since I will keep managing this business through next year’s elections.
What was your favorite part of the internship?
My favorite and most satisfying part about my internship is satisfaction in seeing the results of my hard work. Being my own boss and being the only employee of my small business makes it easy to feel proud of my accomplishments. Every time I get a sale I get so ecstatic and immediately text my friends to update them. The most rewarding part has definitely been seeing my sales slowly improve over time and knowing that I am the sole reason for it.
What did you find challenging about your internship?
The most challenging part about my internship was learning how to be my own boss. I feel like being an entrepreneur is very glamorized (at least from my perspective) but it turned out to be much more difficult and time consuming than I initially anticipated. I learned a lot about myself throughout this internship, such as how to manage my productivity and my time. My organization skills have definitely improved throughout this whole process. I also learned that it is important to keep my head up. I feel like I got overwhelmed frequently at first, but I now feel like I am successful and learning.
What is the impact of your internship experience?
The impact of my internship experience has been life-changing even though that may sound dramatic. It really showed me that I am capable of accomplishing anything I put my mind to. I experienced a speed bump during this journey that shifted my focus off of my business, but the minute I shifted my focus back I noticed a big difference in sales and my improved mental state. My internship experience has made me so much stronger and determined. While my goal of selling out first felt like a bit of a stretch I now know with all my heart that it is completely possible and I am now looking forward to expanding my business.
How has your internship experience influenced your plans for your future?
As I mentioned previously, my internship has led me to start thinking about how to expand my business. I first thought that I would only sell shot glasses for different candidates but I am now looking at expanding to include more products. The first product I am going to start expanding to is stickers, because they’re very simple and profitable. I also want to launch a third product at the same time that I am still drafting ideas for, possibly hats or t-shirts.
What advice do you have for other students as they search for their internship?
The biggest piece of advice I have for students as they begin to search for internships is to have faith in yourself and don’t be scared to start something new. I feel like recently the idea of entrepreneurship has been trending all over social media, but for some reason we don’t think we can do the same thing; but anything is possible. I really urge everyone to start that new business that you’ve been thinking about because truly anything is possible as long as you're putting in the work. I really want to urge students to do an entrepreneurial internship because you learn so much about every aspect of business and even yourself. I have grown tremendously as a person and business owner throughout this experience.