What an amazing experience…. My internship at Ball Horticultural is over and I’m amazed at how fast the 10 weeks flew by. Looking back, it is amazing how much I did and accomplished. I think that perhaps my favorite part was being treated as an actual employee at Ball where people listened to and respected my opinions and ideas.
Presenting on my project to the Executive Committee and upper management was extremely intimidating yet exciting. I was able to present on a real project that was useful to my industry, and I had a passion for a presentation that I haven’t ever experienced in school. It was also very interesting to listen to the other interns presentations regarding their projects. I was blown away by everyone’s presentation skills and fresh ideas for the company.
Perhaps the one thing that I will carry away with me is the hug I received from Anna Ball, the CEO, on my last day. It sounds simple, but I had some very insightful conversations with her over the course of the summer. That hug before I left showed that she wasn’t a hard-to-reach CEO, but a real person who cared about me and the other interns and the future of the industry. She was real, down-to-earth, and showed me that a good business leader should be approachable to everyone in the company.