Joseph Lenkey ’19 Nantucket Bike Tours – Other than your parents, have you ever had people devote their time towards your personal growth? Here at Nantucket Bike Tours, I have three people passionate about my development. Jason ‘98 & Courtney Bridges as well as Cole Crouch ‘17 have been far more than my boss in this small business internship. They are mentors, role models, life coaches, roommates, emotional intelligence gurus, and family. Not only are they investing so much time in us interns, SaVonne Bennette ‘19 and I, but they also own two businesses and spend most of their free time helping their community. For them to give up so much of their time for me is incredible in itself, and for that I am truly grateful to have them in my lives.
This internship is not your typical one working 9-5 Monday-Friday; instead, we lead bike tours 7 days a week (rain or shine) for about 5 hours a day. Living on a beautiful island, I thought I would have all this extra time to relax on the beach, fish, and boat. Reality quickly set in here when I realized this is not a vacation internship, but a 10-week emotional intelligence boot-camp in which I devote a whole summer for personal growth. From the moment we get up in the morning (5:30am) to the moment we go to bed at night (9:30), our focus and goals are for self-improvement and how it will help us succeed in and out of the work place. A normal day looks like this: discussing a chapter in Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, analyzing what our body language says on the days’ bike tour, refining our speaking skills in Toastmasters, learning how to actively listen and ask questions in conversations with strangers at a coffee shop, and debriefing the days victories and challenges at dinner. Every day I continue to develop emotional intelligence ‘superpowers.’ Powers that expand my social awareness and open my eyes to how I see myself interact with others.
One of the most rewarding things I have learned from this experience, is the power of people. We truly live in a “people economy” as Jason says and there is so much to learn and grow when you are interested in others. All the people I have met on Nantucket have incredible stories to share and experiences I can always learn from and apply to my life. An island 30 miles out to sea might seem lonely or isolated, but with this internship I have never before been closer to people. Similarly to Wabash, Nantucket is a very close knit community where you see similar faces every day. Instead of exchanging nods or a quick ‘hello’, this internship has shown me how rewarding it is to introduce myself, learn their name, and build a relationship with that person. I became more connected to this community and will use this lesson to only enhance my last two years at Wabash with fellow students and faculty.
I would like to thank Wabash College and especially the Small Business Internship Fund for giving me this opportunity to explore a different community and gain real work experience with small business. Also, I would like to thank Jason & Courtney Bridges for taking me into their home, work, and lives for my personal growth.
