L.I.N.K.
The Leading Internships for new knowledge (LINK) Is a program that is an integral piece of Animas High School curriculum. It's a personalized journey that connects learning to the adult world. LINK takes students beyond the building of Animas High School students to find internships locally or out of town to find a career. A three-week journey from April 22, to May 10. Then the Juniors were paired with a mentor who shares their experience, skills, and time — providing real-world experience in their field. Also, students are required to complete a project during their internship.
Concrete SK8 Shop
A local skate shop in Durango Colorado Operating for eight years now. Skateboarder owned, skateboarder operated, A local skate shop to build a better skateboard scene through skateboarders. Skaters 4 skaters. Owned by Ty Russell, a passionate business owner who loves skateboarding and wants to bring people together through skate culture. Ty Russell provides the best in skate quality products and is an accessible location for local skateboarders to hang out and relax. He offers a variety of clothing from different popular brands in skateboarding and is of high quality.
Steps To Finding An Internship Anticipation&Preperation
When finding an internship, I didn't focus on finding one until the last two months before us. Juniors went off to LINK. The reason why I took so long was that I had so many interests in topics and I thought here locally in Durango I wouldn't find anything I liked. When I had my first meeting with Janae, she asked me about my interest, and I told her I was into art, music, skateboarding, and photography. I finally chose one and focused on art and so Janae and I looked for local art businesses that take interns, and the company we decided was Studio & Gallery. I was intrigued to learn more about this place and feel committed to picking this place. After a few weeks, I started thinking about my internship, and I decided to tell Janae if I could change it, and it worked out so I told her if I could do something with skateboarding. I wanted to do my internship at Concrete Sk8 Shop, but then she told me another student was doing an internship there, but I wanted it bad so told her if It was possible for two students to do the same internship. It was a no at the beginning so I decided to do it at another skate shop at the Boarding Haus and told Janae I would talk to both of the owners if it's possible for me to intern at their skate shops. I knew Ty Russell at Concrete well, so I decided to talk to him first. He said he hadn't accepted the other student because in the past internships didn't go so well at his shop but since Ty had a stronger relationship with me he would think about it. I finally told Jane that Ty Russell would think of taking me and maybe the other student, so we went through the steps to accomplish this. Through asking the owner Ty Russell to communicate with Janae and figure things out, it eventually went well, and the other student and I got the internship at Concrete Sk8 Shop.
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During Link, I was Anticipating a journey of preparation and was willing to give it my all during my internship. During my Link, I was not expecting to run and manage the local skate shop all alone with my partner. I was nervous because my mentor, in a way, was a bit intimidating to work with but made everything simple and easy. I was prepared to pretend to be in the real world for three weeks and feel like an adult. I thought my partner and I would sit with our mentor and watch him run the shop because Ty Russell didn't trust us to touch and mess with anything. I prepared myself to listen to the rules and information my mentor had to give me through his knowledge of owning a business; it was quite interesting to learn how to run such a simple business. I was not anticipating stocking and restocking items when my mentor would get new things into the store and put the necessary price tag on the items.
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Challenges
- The main challenge I had was working the cash register and figuring how it works
- Staying on a daily routie and maintaning the store
- Using the given skills to sell product
- learning from my mistakes
Contacted Ty Russell and John Agnew
The only no I got was when I tried to communicate to John Agnew because he didn't want me as an intern due to not knowing me and not wasn't interested in interns at the time.
the reason I chose this Internship
The reason I chose this opportunity was because I have always been interested in skateboarding and I have known the owner of Concrete Sk8 Shop for a long time now, and I thought it would be a great time to do my internship at a local skate shop. Before LINK started, Ty Russell had always offered me a job at Concrete Sk8 Shop, but I wasn't at the right age to do so. Then I thought having my internship at Concrete would be a great time to get the experience needed before I do work at Concrete as a part-time job.
Before embarking in my great journey during LINK, I hoped to get great experience in the real world and having a work ethic. Also, being able to manage myself through being independent during my internship, and it seemed like I worked full time at the skate shop.
I was willing to bring my own experience of skate merchandise and knowing what I'm selling to the customer. I hope to share my own experiences and stories through skate culture in the shop and be able to provide a safe environment for all people of any age when entering the skate shop. I will leave with the great experience I had and the great job I have done during my internship. I will have the experience and skills to maintain and manage a business with great responsibility and knowledge on how to work at a skate shop. After I have given an excellent performance, and I have done everything my intern has told me to do, I will most likely get a job after this internship.
I was willing to bring my own experience of skate merchandise and knowing what I'm selling to the customer. I hope to share my own experiences and stories through skate culture in the shop and be able to provide a safe environment for all people of any age when entering the skate shop. I will leave with the great experience I had and the great job I have done during my internship. I will have the experience and skills to maintain and manage a business with great responsibility and knowledge on how to work at a skate shop. After I have given an excellent performance, and I have done everything my intern has told me to do, I will most likely get a job after this internship.
LINK Project
For the project portion of out internship I and another student made a website for Concrete Sk8 Shop. The owner Ty Russell had a website and hasent been updated since he first opened so I and the intern thought It would be a great oppuntunity to update his website so he would get more customers at his store so he could get reconised by other people who arent locals.The reason we made a website was to engage people and the skateboard community through skills we had and marketing through social media buy posting what the shop has in right so people can come in and buy whatever they need.
Link Reflection
This whole experience of LINK was so much fun and being able to choose the internship. I wanted to make the entire thing better. I got to see what it's like to run a local business through steps and skills my mentor gave me making me more successful in achieving my 90 hours during the three weeks. During my internship, it felt like I was working a full-time job because my mentor would leave me and the student alone and was cool to sell products to customers that came by. I think having the opportunity to have an internship at a local business was an excellent experience to see if you have the skills to survive in the real world and maybe after the internship, it could become a job. I got to be on a daily schedule by arriving on time to my course and being on time was the most important thing when it came to my mentor and being able to open the store by yourself was a fun thing to do every day. If I had the opportunity to go out of state and do another internship it would have also been at a skate shop, and it would be one that is more popular, and it would have been cool to see how a bigger more recognized store would function. With Animas High School the Juniors are lucky to have this type of experience, and no other schools do this, and it's great to see what you want to do when your older as a career and I'm happy that I go to go to Animas High School. Overall learning how a skate shop works in a local skate scene was great to see, seeing how many people love the local skate scene and how my mentor gets so much love from everyone its awesome.
Skills and abilities coming to link
The primary skill having come into Link would be marketing and communication skills. It was vital to use these skills when learning how to run a business because I knew that I had to negotiate with products that were in the shop since I have been in the shop several times. A lot of the skills my mentor taught me were to convince people to buy a specific product, and I knew what I was selling because I knew what that customer wanted or needed. For example, if someone comes in asking what type of boards you got, I would go around and name the different brands and tell them a brand that is good and has good quality. There where times where I had to build a relationship with the customer like what they were up to and what brings you to Concrete then talk to them why their interested in buying that product and making a story out of it. During the internship, I learned to have hardworking and independence skills. With these skills, I got to be on my own most of the time and had to manage the shop. Also, through my mentor and his leadership skills and him teaching everything he knows to make us successful. My mentor had to trust us with everything in the store to working the cash register to stocking merchandise without his help. Even though I was left alone all day, I had to work hard also if he wasn't there and act as I worked there and this helped me build a work ethic by putting efforts in everything. There were times in the shop where I had to take responsibility for answering the phone to see if my mentor was calling to check in to see if I was selling anything. I took pride in what I was doing checking the people that were walking by and had to convince them to come into the store also I followed all the rules that were given to me by sweeping and cleaning the store when closing every day.
There were challenges like changing my perspective in what I was doing all day because My mentor and I were doing a lot to look over the skate shop, and even though we weren't getting paid. We had to realize how difficult it was to run a local business and what our mentor does to keep Concrete running successfully. It wasn't what we expected in a skate shop. There were times were our mentor said everything we do in cash register and put it in a department when someone buys something I always made mistakes by putting in a specific item in a department multiple times. One time someone bought two stickers, and the customer didn't have enough money, so he decided to buy one, and I didn't know how to erase it from the system, and I typed in the sticker multiple times making seem someone bought one hundred dollars worth of stickers. When these things happened, I got scared and nervous every time and didn't know what to do. The first time I did this, I didn't say anything to my mentor, and the next day, he got upset. In the real world, if I kept doing that, I wouldn't have a job. I had to pretend I was in the real world and to learn from my mistakes always and to check what I was doing all the time when working a device that makes no sense.
Ty Russell will take anyone willing to mess with him. If the student is passionate about skateboarding and supports the local skate scene, they would be a great fit to Concrete skate shop. If you have the patience to take Ty Russell criticism and his great stories this would be such an excellent fit for you. I know sometimes skateboarding has its stereotypes and no one wants anything to do with it, but the local skate scene is the most welcoming communities you could have. If students are willing to learn how a business works through skateboarding Concrete would be a great fit for them because owning a skate shop is a lot different from a lot of companies with the skills you have to learn to sell products which for me was a lot more intriguing when coming into this internship. Ty Russel will make your LINK a lot more enjoyable even if you don't know ty that well but you will build a strong relationship with him. It would be a great experience to get out of your comfort zone.
This internship has helped me have more of a work ethic and gain new skills like communication and leadership skills with owning a business. It has boosted my confidence and to become a better worker in the real world through the experience I had during my internship. I have learned many vital skills, like running the cash register, managing a local business, Persuasion, and many more. With these skills, I can have a better chance of finding a job I could be good at and become more successful in doing it. Within three weeks, it has changed my perspective in the real world and how tough it can be due to the many mistakes I made and I how I have learned from them. Through managing the store alone, it allowed me to see what it's like to maintain a store independently for 6 hours every day. Also, to rely on myself on the work that I needed to complete without anyone telling me to do so. This internship, I noticed a resemblance of what it's like going into college or a working career I enjoy. This made me more interested in business and advertising going into college and I hope I will stay with that path in college.
Moving Forward
I Can bring energetic and passionate love to the Animas environment with becoming a senior I will have a lot experience on how to deal with other students and fresh osprey coming, and I would love to be involved in more activities like music, yearbook, and become a student ambassador. Moving forward I want to keep doing what I'm doing enjoy the Animas community and to have a solid plan in life no matter what that might be and to keep opening my self up to new experiences and get out of my comfort zone. This summer is going to be filled with a lot of responsibilities staying here in Durango working making money and to keep saving up money for college. To enjoy myself and be prepared for senior year of high school. I would love to talk to Jessica Adams about colleges and to see where I can fit in the best. I am interested in business in college and love to explore more about and to see how the company works since I have seen only a little part of it. Because right now, I have been looking at colleges and I want to stay here Colorado and go to any college that fits my personality and has the things I want. I have also really been thinking about taking a gap year to get my mind ready and focus on working and making money and on thinking deeper on college and the to get ready for the real world because its a scary place out there.
Moving Forward
I Can bring energetic and passionate love to the Animas environment with becoming a senior I will have a lot experience on how to deal with other students and fresh osprey coming, and I would love to be involved in more activities like music, yearbook, and become a student ambassador. Moving forward I want to keep doing what I'm doing enjoy the Animas community and to have a solid plan in life no matter what that might be and to keep opening my self up to new experiences and get out of my comfort zone. This summer is going to be filled with a lot of responsibilities staying here in Durango working making money and to keep saving up money for college. To enjoy myself and be prepared for senior year of high school. I would love to talk to Jessica Adams about colleges and to see where I can fit in the best. I am interested in business in college and love to explore more about and to see how the company works since I have seen only a little part of it. Because right now, I have been looking at colleges and I want to stay here Colorado and go to any college that fits my personality and has the things I want. I have also really been thinking about taking a gap year to get my mind ready and focus on working and making money and on thinking deeper on college and the to get ready for the real world because its a scary place out there.