A business is no static concept; it continually adapts and grows with the goal of becoming more effective, profitable, and advanced in meeting a consumer's needs. Each and every COVID-surviving business has had to problem solve creatively, overcome great loss, and practice COVID safety through acts of innovation. There is no question that how we understand a business model today can be completely destroyed, either by a global pandemic or the latest Jeff-Bezos-like vision for the future of commerce. Executives and small business owners alike are scrambling to understand their relevance in an almost-post-pandemic era that happens to coincide with the peak of digitalization. There is a hole in many businesses' understanding of how they can communicate effectively and remain connected to their consumers amid a time of narrow digital communication. So, how can the load of recovery be eased and innovation be restored in the middle of instability? Enter the summer intern.

    Jayden Hanson, first year international business and finance student at Pepperdine University and summer finance and marketing intern at the Wenatchee Valley Chamber of Commerce said, “I think intern work is one of those things that is most underrated, yet so critical. It brings a fresh perspective into business, mainly with how interns are gaining a fresh major that has new ideas that are critical to the business world that are somewhat more valuable than someone who attained their major - let’s say- thirty years ago.”

    Interns are the future of business. Young college students have an innate sense of the digital world, have been marketed to for most of their lives, and have an inclination to crave constant innovation. They are powerful consumers, needed voices and unique stakeholders in the industry. What interns bring to a business is an intuition that differs from experts or members of an industry with extensive experience - they bring a deeply knowledgeable sense of trends and new directions, an open-mindedness that allows for creativity and ingenuity, and an undeniable need for experience.

    It is in this perfect combination of supply and demand that an opportunity for a symbiotic relationship emerges. “Currently businesses are struggling with unemployment and bouncing back to where they used to be and this market right now is a prime time to be hiring interns for help and experience, so it’s mutually beneficial. So many students are hungry to learn and gain experience and within our valley there's few opportunities”, said Hayden. As for his own goals in the Wenatchee Valley Chamber of Commerce internship, Jayden said, “I am hoping to gain valuable experience with people who have many years of experience within each of their professions and take this into my major and the greater education I pursue when I go off to Pepperdine.” Part of what internships do for students is address the gap between education and real world experience. “From my own experience, filling the void of online education is learning from business leaders on how to grow within a career such as [through] social networking, [what] trade and commerce [looks like] within a community, and how businesses use organizational methods to grow as an entity”, said Jayden. Interns have good ideas and an adequate sense of communication within their own target market, but what they are missing most from their minimal resumes is how this knowledge is applied to the world of business. Interns have the potential to be more than office coffee-runners or garbage-taker-outers; they are an overlooked asset that should be utilized. “Interns bring a fresh perspective newly coming out of school or being in school. As well as having more freedoms. When you are within your career for a while, you can get used to following procedure but interns basically change the status quo of careers in some ways”, said Jayden.

    To connect your business with an internship position, please explore the resources listed below.

• OIC of Washington 270 9th St. NE. #240 East Wenatchee, WA 98802 https://www.yvoic.org/
• AmeriCorps 620 Lewis St. Wenatchee, WA 98801 https://servewashington.wa.gov/intermountain-americorps
• Wenatchee Valley College 1300 Fifth St. Wenatchee, WA 98801 https://www.wvc.edu/
• Wenatchee Learns Connect 1 S. Wenatchee Ave. Wenatchee, WA 98801 https://www.wenatcheeschools.org/wl/students/job-shadows-internships
• Skillsource 234 N. Mission St. Wenatchee, WA 98801 https://www.skillsource.org/
• JVC Northwest 2780 SE Harrison St. Milwaukie, OR 97222 https://jvcnorthwest.org