For the school semester of spring 2016 I, Kyle Hardenburg, worked as a communications intern for the Environmental Nature Center. While this internship was a requirement for my college it quickly grew and evolved into one of the most important experiences in my college life. This internship showed me what it really meant to work in the real world and gave me a taste of the freedom and responsibilities one receives in a job that you cannot truly experience anywhere inside the schooling system.
I loved every second I had in this experience, from learning all I can about the ins and outs of working the marketing/communications branch of a non-profit company to being given the creative freedom to experiment in the ways of video editing and recording. While these learning experiences were priceless and (maybe more importantly) quite enjoyable to me I have to say the best part of working at the ENC was the amazing staff.
Everyone I met and worked with at the ENC accepted me in a heartbeat and made me instantly feel welcomed and relaxed every time I was there. With my internship coming to an end I must look forward to graduation in a couple weeks and then on to finding a fulltime job that will hopefully lead to a long and pleasant career.
While looking into my open future can be quite frightening, I was encouraged when I talked to and got to know more about many of the staff members of the ENC and their career paths and stories.
I am not a big fan of school and while sometimes I lack the motivation to write two page essays assigned to me in class I find myself struggling to limit the size of this blog as the topic is something I truly care about. So I will simply end with this, my time as an intern for the Environmental Nature Center was one of the most significant, enjoyable and educational periods of my schooling life and I plan on using it as a foundation for the rest of my career/life. I thank every last member of the ENC for this opportunity and wish everyone a well and happy life! – Kyle Hardenburg, ENC Communications Intern