{"id":1684,"date":"2018-07-19T13:41:04","date_gmt":"2018-07-19T13:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/?p=1684"},"modified":"2018-08-14T13:38:18","modified_gmt":"2018-08-14T13:38:18","slug":"torres-20-develops-skills-that-will-benefit-him-in-the-international-business-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/2018\/07\/19\/torres-20-develops-skills-that-will-benefit-him-in-the-international-business-field\/","title":{"rendered":"Torres ’20 Develops Skills That Will Benefit Him in The International Business Field"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marcus Torres \u201920 Nantucket Bike Tours<\/em> – Six weeks ago, I disembarked the Hy-line speed ferry having finally arrived to the island of Nantucket. After grabbing my bags from the ferry, I made my way down the dock to find Jason Bridges \u201998 and Waleed (Weedy) Elrefai \u201920 patiently waiting for my arrival. What\u2019s the first thing Jason \u201998 says?: \u201cLook around and take in everything you\u2019re seeing because these next 10 weeks are going to fly by.\u201d As I sit here at the Handlebar caf\u00e9 six weeks later while writing this blog I realize he couldn\u2019t have been more right.<\/p>\n

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Waleed and I after giving fellow Wally, David Martz \u201993, and his family a tour. David and his family traveled all the way from Thailand to take an NBT tour. Not to mention, they planned their vacation around the tour which was awesome. David found out about NBT through reading the Wabash Alumni magazine. Wallies worldwide. WAF<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As I sought out internship opportunities this past spring semester, I knew I wanted to gain experience that would be applicable and beneficial to all aspects of my life, both personal and professional. I wanted an experience that would mold me into the leader I hope to be. Interning at Nantucket Bike Tours (NBT) has done just that. This internship has been far from typical. As for all internships, if one hopes to gain any kind of experience they must \u201cbuy in.\u201d However, this \u201cbuy in\u201d is amped up to the next level here at Nantucket Bike Tours. Both Jason \u201998 and Courtney Bridges expect the most from Waleed \u201920 and I, and not only do they have high expectations, but they devote all of their time to helping us exceed these expectations. For that alone, I have been super thankful.<\/p>\n

What is it like interning for Nantucket Bike Tours? We like to refer to this internship as \u201cawareness boot camp.\u201d From the moment we wake up (5:30am-6) to the moment we go to bed (10pm), our social awareness must always be \u201con\u201d and our leadership must set in. Whether we\u2019re walking down the sidewalk, eating breakfast at the Bridges\u2019 home, or giving a tour to a 15-person group, we must be willing to engage others, smile and keep a friendly and genuine persona. The bike tours serve as a vehicle that allow us to improve upon our emotional intelligence, people skills and small business acumen. Each and every day we engage in new conversation, meet and connect with new people, and become interested in others. It\u2019s easier said than done. This brings me to the first and most valuable lesson I\u2019ve learned up to this point: the power, value, and importance of people and relationships. As humans, we naturally seek interactions with others, however, more often than not, we tend not to engage others. After only six weeks of this internship, I sit back now and think, \u201chow could I have been so stubborn as to not connect with and see the value in people like I do now?\u201d There were definitely missed opportunities in the past, but thankfully, there will be tons more in the future.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s a typical day like in the life of NBT interns?: tour preparation in the morning (bike logistics, calling customers, etc.), engaging customers at the Handlebar caf\u00e9 while drinking a morning coffee, analyzing the body language of group members on a tour in order to adapt to their interests and debriefing about the day’s victories and challenges with Jason and Courtney at dinner. This occurs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As I mentioned earlier, we\u2019re always \u201con.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to embarking on this Nantucket journey, I had also hoped to become more confident in social and larger group settings. After six weeks of giving tours to 15+ people, attending community fundraisers and engaging in other activities which require public speaking involvement on my part, this goal of mine has become attainable. There is still a ton of work to be done, but with people like Jason and Courtney who care about our personal development and think so highly of us, it will be much easier getting to where I want to be.\u00a0 With hopes of working in the International Business field, this internship has provided me with the foundational knowledge of what it is like to run and manage a business; from sales to marketing to customer service, this business knowledge of mine is all coming into fruition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marcus Torres \u201920 Nantucket Bike Tours – Six weeks ago, I disembarked the Hy-line speed ferry having finally arrived to the island of Nantucket. After grabbing my bags from the ferry, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,103,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2018-summer-internships","category-cibe","category-small-business-internship-fund-sbif"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2018\/07\/Torres.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1684"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1686,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684\/revisions\/1686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}