Product design major gets a broad range of internship experience through Broncos Lead Internship Program
KALAMAZOO, Mich.鈥擶hen Isabella Waite was applying to colleges, she hoped she might get some work experience relevant to her career goals in product design. What she wasn鈥檛 expecting was the remarkable range of high-quality paid internships she enjoyed while attending Western.
After spending one summer working for toy industry giant Melissa & Doug, Isabella capped her senior year with an internship at Grayling Ceramics in Kalamazoo thanks to the Broncos Lead Internship Program, which offers paid internship experiences to students starting their sophomore year.
While much of her time at Melissa & Doug鈥檚 headquarters involved a lot of 鈥渋deation, sketching and digital rendering鈥 for products she might not see on shelves for a year or more, her work at Grayling this summer was hands-on and afforded her the opportunity to experience product design and production from start to finish.
鈥淚t was an interesting challenge to take on interns this summer,鈥 says Shay Church, a former art instructor at Western and co-creator of Grayling Ceramics. 鈥淲e鈥檙e a small business in an intimate space where we create around 400 pieces a week with just five employees and myself. I wanted to give them a well-rounded experience but also be mindful of the fact that they didn鈥檛 have prior clay experience.鈥
Fortunately, ceramics was a special interest of Waite鈥檚 within her product design major.
鈥淚 really enjoy creating functional ceramic pieces, and my goal was to learn more about different production methods,鈥 she emphasizes. 鈥淲hile at Grayling, I was slip casting tumblers, steins, growlers and pitchers. I also added handles to the steins and mugs before they were fired, helped with applying Grayling鈥檚 signature 麻豆传媒应用-themed decals to the pieces after they came out of the kilns, and was loading and unloading pieces in the kilns.鈥
Along with finding a paid internship that would help her cover tuition costs, gaining valuable experience in the small-business community was critical to Waite鈥檚 career interests.
鈥淚鈥檝e thought about either freelancing, crowdfunding or maybe even starting my own business in the future, so I found it really helpful to be immersed in a small business within the art and design community,鈥 she says.
Another added bonus of her immersive internship experience was getting to see Grayling products that she helped make out in the Kalamazoo community. 鈥淚 see different businesses carrying Grayling products and am able to say 鈥業 helped make that stein or I helped make a product that will bring someone else joy,鈥 and that鈥檚 something I will cherish for a long time.鈥
Reflecting on the substantive and varied work experiences she stepped into during her time at Western, Waite is full of hope and gratitude.
鈥淭he connections I have made and the skills I have learned through these internships are beyond what I could have ever imagined.鈥