When applying I set my goals high, and applied at BCBG corporate in NYC, Gucci in Costa Mesa, Orange County, CA, and called multiple other stores including Burberry, Banana Republic, and Nordstrom. Unfortunately, I could not find housing in NYC for the summer, Gucci decided to take local students from FDIM, and the others weren’t offering internships. Around March of this year I was still trying to apply at local boutiques back here in South Bend and Mishawaka when I looked up stores located at the Fashion Mall. To my pleasant surprise, Anthropologie was listed. [You may be more familiar with Anthro’s parent company: Urban Outfitters --- U.O. has three sub-companies: Anthropologie, Free People, and Terrain.] I called them and BCBG both. Though BCBG wasn’t offering any store internships, Anthropologie told me to submit a resume and follow up in a week. Long story short…I got the internship!
I also knew a lot of friends from school who lived near Indy, and I ended up staying with a friend who’s also an Apparel Design major—Natasha—in Zionsville (her driveway view is the picture above). I drove about 20 min to work each day, which was on the North side of Indy close to Carmel, and I was able to visit downtown Indy, Brownsburg, Avon, Danville, and Purdue with ease. On weeks where I only worked a couple days, I also visited home, which was only a 2 ½ hour drive. To many this seems like a long time haha but I got used to driving so often, anything under an hour is nothing really now.
My internship with Anthropologie was absolutely wonderful. The first two days I worked, the entire staff showed up at 6 AM to do their yearly stock of inventory to account for losses. Loss prevention is unfortunately now a major deal with multiple retail organizations due to rises in theft, mostly attributed to the economy. During the rest of my month and a half there, I worked part time, paid, with weekly hours ranging from 10 to 32. (Hours and schedules for internship hours vary between companies–with Anthropologie I was treated like a regular retail associate.) Dress was very unrestricted, aside from no shorts, no logos aside from Anthro’s brands, and no flip flops–other than that it was just expected you dressed well and in a way that reflected the lifestyle of an Anthro girl. I was trained on inventory, censoring, re-stock in the mornings, fitting room service, loss prevention, customer care, retail procedures such as floor management and upkeep, and closing procedures in the evening.
I believe the best part of the internship came from the atmosphere. Anthropologie’s overall aims and mission as a company fit so well with my individuality and the general direction I wish to go with my career as a designer. For inspiration, corporate sends each retail outlet an “inspiration board” with themes the store is trying to represent for the season. Artistic freedom with retail display is then up to each outlet. We have five major departments: women’s apparel, women’s accessories, home, bedding, and lounge. Other sections include general green (a section geared toward environmentally-focused living,) children’s books/animals/learning objects, and multiple books throughout the store with themes ranging from recipes to the history of Valentino. I should also mention we as employees had quite a good discount, so it was all I could do to tell myself I needed to save for school haha. Of course, I did take advantage of it, though.
My co-workers were all very amiable and took the time to get to know me, while still maintaining professional attitudes. I found that one employee and two managers also had graduated from Purdue; the managers had obtained degrees in retail management. Many of my co-workers and I shared similar interests, including art, design (2 had majored in fashion design), fashion, and Starbucks haha. On the Starbucks note, during one week we had a contest for someone to win a Starbucks gift card. Whenever you added on items to a fitting room, signed someone up to for an Anthro card, etc, you put your name on a piece of paper which was then put into a drawing. I ended up winning, oddly enough, and plan on saving that card for when school commences again. :) Now I am good friends with many of them, and we’re all planning on staying in touch via good-old Facebook.
The only hard thing about my internship was the distance from home. I usually okay with my independence, but since I’m leaving for New York City in a little under 4 weeks and having been away earlier this summer for Maymester classes, I missed out on a lot of things with my friends and family back home. I did get to meet up with a friend here, and a friend there, but it was definitely a test. I grew a lot this summer, including both educational and life lessons learned from my internship. I look forward to spending the rest of my summer with friends and family back here in Elkhart, and one last stop at Purdue :) before I leave for FIT.
I’ll try and do a few posts when I can in NYC. In the meantime, I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their summer! And good luck to all the new freshmen as you embark on this journey known as college.
The burgers are calling me to grill them, so I’m gonna peace out.
*ashley
Late-night Insomnia Cookie runs, football games, fountain runs, seeing familiar faces all around campus, walking from class to class with a group of friends from my major, studying into the wee hours of the morning, Breakfast Club...oh the fond memories of Purdue!
My first trip of the summer was to Washington, D.C. for the 2009 Leadership Honors Boot Camp. I went there on a full scholarship sponsored by AAFCS (American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences) because of my national involvement with the organization. I went there having no idea what to expect. I was under the assumption that it was going to be a regular conference with many students from around the nation there. I met my roommate who was from Texas A&M and we figured out that we both had family and consumer sciences majors. So we figured this conference was for those leaders in different FCS fields. While, preparing for the first day of the conference, we walk into a room in a Hilton Suites Hotel to find 11 other students there.
We also got a chance to see The Phantom of the Opera, or La Fantasma de la Opera in Spanish. The music was outstanding, and the special effects were amazing. It was fun to dress up and go out in Buenos Aires for a night on the town. Overall, Buenos Aires was an amazing city, very similar to New York or Chicago, and a great place to start our trip! 
--Ryan & Brent
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This summer however I will be away from the hills and thrills as I travel out west to Yellowstone National Park. Here I will be roughly 2 miles from the East Side Entrance at Pahaska Tepee about an hour away from Cody Wyoming. Here I plan to be a host in their restaurant as well as work the front desk area. This is a much smaller operation as there are roughly only 40 employees, compared to Cedar Point that had over 5000! Don’t worry I will keep everyone posted and provide you all with many pictures as the summer approaches!
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