How to have a successful internship experience

This past semester has been a great experience for me as a result of my great internship. I’ve been interning at the Philadelphia Orchard Project, a nonprofit organization that helps plant orchards all across the city. I am the graphic design intern, and I help create social media and branding materials for the organization. It has been a great opportunity for me to learn about both graphic design and nonprofit organizations, which I view as a very unique experience and I feel very lucky.

However, there is one thing I could’ve done that would have made it much better, and that is knowing exactly what it is that I wanted to get out of the experience. I would’ve been able to navigate my internship much more effectively if I had laid out specific things that I wanted to get out of my internship, and visited that every now and then throughout the experience. That way, it would’ve ensured that I was really making the most out of the opportunity. I recommend that anyone beginning an internship does this, because you will have a much more productive experience if you do!