Major: Environmental Studies in Sustainable Design
Minor: Communication
Campus Involvement: Member of Delta Gamma Sorority, President and founder of Denison Wine Society, Vice president of Denison Club Tennis
Internship Site: Crate&Barrel
Internship Location: Northbrook, Illinois
Brief description of your role and responsibilities.
I worked on the Dorm, Kitchen, and Entertaining design teams and got to help and oversee the individual products during the market research, communication, design, spec, development and approval stages, within a set calendar. I was in charge of organizing and reviewing product samples, testing colors of samples and attended merchant and design team meetings for Kitchen and Entertaining products. I conducted market trend research and created mood boards for design team and hard goods team and gave presentations to respective teams. I also helped design and give feedback on the creative concept for Dorm 2025 line as well as Holiday 2025 wrapping paper line using Adobe Illustrator for the product line, that reflects the provided mood for the season. I compiled research for the design team, wrote a report, gave suggestions and presented findings to my supervisor, ESG and Sourcing teams on how Crate and Barrel could sustainably recycle their textile scraps using the Circular Economic method. The research was well received and I was put in charge of donating fabric scraps to local schools art and fashion programs. In addition to working with the textile and design team, I also got to work with and attend some of the meetings of the Marketing, Social Media, and ESG teams at Crate.
How has this internship influenced your career direction?
This internship has significantly influenced my career direction. From this internship, I have learned that I want to work in the creative/design space as well as work at a job that has sustainability components. I also learned that I enjoyed doing market trend research and coming up with ideas for potential products and ways we can market said products via social media. From this incredible experience, I have learned that if I want to go into product design, I need to be way more advanced in my Adobe and CAD skills to be a designer.
What advice do you have for future interns?
Be honest with your coworkers. If you have too much work to do, do not voluntarily say you can help them with something else and accept more work because then you are setting an expectation that the job will get done. In reality, the work that your boss tasked you to do is more important. Another really good piece of advice that I learned from someone I was working with is do not put something on your resume if you do not like doing said thing.
Aside from your internship, are there other tools, resources or programs that have supported your career exploration?
Yes the 3D printing class that I took at Denison was SUPER helpful and taught me how to use Adobe and CAD programs which is what helped me get this internship. The Knowlton Center is also a great tool to use and really helped me build my resume. Additionally I would recommend taking some classes in the ENVS department because you get to work with real world people for your projects and get job experience. Denison Edge programing classes are also super helpful by providing classes to students that are normally not offered at small liberal arts colleges like Denison.
