Each summer, Buzz Franchise Brands hosts a summer internship program. This program is used to share the corporate experience with enthusiastic college students who are eager to get a taste of what lies ahead for them. It allows students to build a work ethic through real life experiences that can’t be taught in the classroom. Various departments within Buzz Franchise Brands hold in-depth interviews for interns, allowing them to get real-life interview experience as the first step in their internship journey.

Our Impeccable Interns

While this year looked a little different than years past, we are happy that we were still able to have our summer internship program. We had four smart and capable interns that participated in the program. Two of the interns, Austin and Konrad, assisted the finance and analytics team. Austin is a rising sophomore at Virginia Tech, studying finance and investment management.  Konrad, a rising sophomore at William and Mary, plans to major in business with a minor in computer science. Both Austin and Konrad were dedicated to helping the finance and analytics team and were eager to learn as much as they could. 

We also had two marketing interns this summer. Tori was our traditional marketing intern, while Nicholas supported the digital marketing team specifically. Tori, a rising junior at Virginia Tech, did a two-week rotation with each brand, creating valuable content for blogs and marketing campaigns. Nicholas, a senior at Old Dominion University, assisted with all aspects of digital marketing. He was enthusiastic in learning everything he could about online analytics, search engine optimization, and provided valuable research and ideas to help streamline various processes.

Leaving With More Than College Credit

While our interns gain college credit for their time, as well as valuable experience in their field of interest, they gain much more than that. Here are just a few of the important life skills that come with the BFB internship.

• Effective communication: Working with different people on various projects can require different forms of communication. The interns get a fair amount of time to work with different people and personalities, providing the opportunity to build those communication skills.

• How to prioritize: Often times, the interns were given multiple projects at once. It was up to them to balance the tasks they were given and prioritize accordingly.

• Presentation skills: One valuable part of the intern experience is the presentation at the end of the summer. We firmly believe that presentation skills, from building the content to public speaking in general, get better with practice, so we like to make this a requirement to build that confidence.

• Learning to adapt: While adapting comes with any job, a pandemic adds a whole new level of adaptation. The internship initially got pushed back a couple of weeks due to COVID, and at some points transitioned to virtual. Between last minute changes to Zoom meetings and having to do check-ins virtually, the interns adapted well and were able to continue their work without pause. Inevitably, this prepared them for many of the virtual class formats they’ll be dealing with in their fall semester.

Hear From Our Interns

While we could go on forever about the great work our interns have done over the past few months, we wanted you to hear what some of them had to say. Here’s what Tori, our marketing intern thought of her time with Buzz Franchise Brands.

“From the first day at Buzz Franchise Brands, I felt welcomed and encouraged to work diligently, contribute my own ideas, and act with curiosity. When I reflect on this crazy and unusual time, I will primarily remember the opportunities found at BFB and how their team remained resilient in serving their communities. I'm grateful to have been able to help carry out their missions this summer and witness significant growth within myself and my work ethic!”

Nicholas, our digital marketing intern, was impressed with the collaboration between employees. Here’s what Nicholas said about his experience.

“I was constantly amazed at how efficiently a solid and well-constructed team could work together. The knowledge I have gained from this position is priceless and I feel blessed that I was able to work with colleagues that were attentive as well as knowledgeable! I'm truly thankful for the experience and relationships this internship has given me and will continue to utilize the work ethic and knowledge given to me by BFB.”

We are thankful for a successful summer internship program, and to our interns who worked hard all summer!