Hire an Intern, Change a LIfe
Thursday September 19, 2019 | Filed under:
The best part of my week was writing $1,000 scholarship checks to three deserving students who penned winning essays about their eye-opening experience in the ASI Summer Internship Program. They were among a record 316 interns who worked at 21 supplier and 222 distributor companies throughout the promotional products industry, learning business and people skills that will serve them the rest of their careers.
Although I consider every intern a winner, these three wrote essays that set them apart from the pack: Taylor Abraham, of Cedar Rapids, IA, and Coe College, intern at IMS Branded Solutions (asi/231482); Nina Auslander, of Lyons, CO, and Oberlin College, intern at VisABILITY (asi/202720); and Madison Apshire, of Silsbee, TX, and Lamar University, intern at Americom Marketing (asi/159113). In addition to a $1,000 scholarship, Madison won a Lenovo T520 laptop donated by ASI Business Savings partner Lenovo.
I encourage you to take a few minutes to read their essays in full on our website because I guarantee you’ll be encouraged by their insight, energy and unique take on our industry. They went into the experience knowing little to nil about promos and left with full understanding of the power and potential of promo products as affordable, effective marketing tools.
In her essay, Nina wrote: “Working for VisABILITY this summer taught me the role that promotional products play in establishing our own personal brands, how the ethos of a particular brand can stretch beyond their logo, and how vital personal touches can be in establishing one’s brand.”
She’s gets it! While I’m hopeful all the interns will consider a career in our industry after graduation, it’s guaranteed their enthusiasm for promos will endure no matter where they land.
The ASI internship program is free to ASI members who hire one or more interns. Since we started our program in 2016 to attract more young professionals to the industry, nearly 1,000 interns have participated.
It’s perfect for companies who’ve never hired an intern before because ASI helps with training, along with providing free access to ESP®, invitations to ASI Chicago and ASI Roadshows, digital subscriptions to ASI magazines, a gift pack, certificate of completion and the chance to compete for scholarship money by writing about what they learned over the summer.
If you need more encouragement, consider these testimonials from participating supervisors:
Amanda Prince, social media and account manager at Americom Marketing: “The ASI internship program has been a productive, terrific experience for us all at Americom Marketing. Madison provided immediate impact for our team with new resources and insights and – within a few short weeks – she was able to develop more options and incremental growth to our account management.”
Janice Gavan, president and owner of VisABILITY: “Our company has offered internships to college students over the years but partnering with ASI’s Internship Program was a game-changer. ASI provided educational training that boosted our intern’s understanding of how the promotional products industry serves our special market niche.”
Lisa Abraham, VP of marketing and business development at IMS Branded Solutions: “This was our first time using interns at IMS Branded Solutions. What a wonderful win/win experience. The interns were clever, enthusiastic, ambitious and brought wonderful input and new ideas to our sales, finance and distribution teams. I believe it really opened their eyes to the vast career opportunities in the promotional product and apparel industry. We will definitely use the intern program going into 2020 and beyond.”
Mark your calendar. The spring semester ends in about six months and there will be thousands of eager, qualified students looking for opportunities that could change their lives – and yours.
For information on joining the 2020 ASI Internship Program, please contact ASI Senior Marketing Manager Christine Shaw directly at cshaw@asicentral.com.