Goats Horses & Ducks, Oh My! A Countryside Internship

My name is Layla Wheeler, I’m a senior advertising student. I currently intern at Ethereal Farms as a PR & marketing intern. Ethereal Farms is a luxury bed and breakfast located in Wine Country, PA. This farm is a hidden gem with a plethora of lovely farm animals! From outdoor cats to donkeys, there is almost every animal you can imagine.

This is my first internship, and it has been such a fun ride since I started here in January. I work fully remote 15 hours a week. But I don’t feel lonely, we have meetings every day to collaborate on various projects. Everyone who is part of the LD enterprises has the chance to discuss what tasks they are working on and keep everything moving smoothly. 

Ethereal Farms is one of the umbrella enterprises owned by Laura Difransceo. She is an entrepreneur and has four of her own businesses: Flourish Coworking space, Dean Street Law, LD Brand, and Ethereal Farms, as well as two podcasts. Each company is small but mighty. I’m the sole intern for Ethereal Farms, but six other interns work for the other respective companies that I occasionally get to work with and meet with several times a week. 

During the last three months, I’ve been creating content for the Ethereal Farms Instagram page. It has been such a fun experience being able to have a creative outlet and enhancing my skills with video editing. I even joined in on book marketing meetings, and I’m now working on a project for Laura’s upcoming book release. This is something near and dear to me, as a post-grad, I plan on working in the publishing industry, on marketing and advertising campaigns for book releases. Being able to jump around projects outside of my main tasks is something very special about working for a small company, because working at larger companies, it is not as easy to work in different departments.

Working at Ethereal Farms, I’ve grown as an intern with monthly glowup meetings I can track my improvement and see what has changed since I first started to now. Each week, I’m working on different projects, growing in importance as I’ve grown.

It has been great to work on various projects, from crafting posters to creating a newsletter for Ethereal Farms promotion. I’ve honed my writing and design skills in the process of this internship. I’ve built trust and a connection with my managers, who both work diligently to ensure I have all the tools I need to be successful. As previously mentioned, I work remotely, so I get to work with people in various states and still feel connected with them. 

While I enjoy working remotely, this internship has shown me that I do desire to work in person or at least in a hybrid style. I find that being in person will allow me to work more effectively with my coworkers and build deeper relationships. I also have learned that working in PR is exciting to me, and I hope to continue to work closely with PR in my future jobs. 

This experience has taught me how to communicate with my superiors in a professional manner but still ensuring I’m heard and being taken seriously. It is important to ask questions even if it seems silly because being an intern is like being a sponge, I’m trying to soak up all the knowledge I can to take with me on future endeavours. 

For anyone who is looking for internships and has not had one before, my best piece of advice is be yourself and show your personality when interviewing, it is one of the best ways for your future employer to see if you will be a good fit personalitywise with the other people working at the company. 

Internships are all about gaining experience in what you want to do in the future, as well as figuring out what you don’t want to be doing for the rest of your life. Both sides are equally important. It may seem daunting at first, but companies hiring interns want to help you grow and learn in the field of your choice.