What is LINK?
Every Spring 11th graders at Animas High School are given the opportunity to undergo a three week internship called LINK (Leading Internships for New Knowledge). During those three weeks juniors act as if their internship is their full time job, there is no school scheduled for juniors for three weeks. This allows many students to travel, work unusual hours and all in all get the most out of their experience. We begin the process in the fall, contacting businesses, organizations or mentors that work in a field of interest to us. We start the process this early because often times mentors say no for many reasons, even if they are interested in being a part of the program. Many students still do not have a LINK by early spring, finding an internship can be a process.
My Process:
My friend Julian Gonzalez and I have an idea for a skateboard company. Initially we reached out to Paul Schmitt, the most well renowned skateboard manufacturer ever. It was an extensive process getting his contact information and unfortunately we never heard back from him. This bummed both of us out quite a bit. My first fall back idea was to intern at a local skate shop in Durango, this was a safe idea, but I already had spent a lot of time in our local skate shops and knew that I did not want to open up a retail shop of any kind as an adult. I really wrestled with the concept of finding a meaningful internship, but I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity and do something new or something that I’m very passionate about. This led me to get an internship at a hair salon on a random whim that my social self would enjoy conversing while styling peoples hair. I had a lot of confidence that this was a great idea for a month, then there was only one month left until LINK began. I started to doubt how much I wanted to do this internship, over time I grew less and less enthusiastic about the idea. LINK started on a Monday and the Friday before that Monday I got my hair cut at the hair salon that my internship was scheduled at. While getting my haircut I got really annoyed and realized that I did not want to spend three weeks there. On Monday I left early from my internship and asked John Agnew, the owner of the Boarding Haus if he would take me as an intern. He said yes and so the next day I went to Lemon Head Hair Salon briefly, had a very professional conversation with my mentor and the owner of Lemon Head, Alayna Mathews, and then left and finalized my internship at the Boarding Haus.
What is The Boarding Haus?
Established by John Agnew in 1995, The Boarding Haus is a skateboard shop in Durango, CO. Striving to promote positive culture beyond skateboarding in the action sports industry, snowboards and BMX bikes are also soled there but they are a skate shop at the heart of the business. I interned in the skateboarding side of the business under John’s leadership, who is an old school skater with a very impressive collection of old skateboards that create a very cool aesthetic in the shop. During the winter time he profits most off of selling and renting snowboards and snowboard equipment. Even though I am a skier, I recognize how important snowboards are to the shop in its entirety. The Boarding Haus is Durango’s premier board shop.
My LINK project:
The Boarding Haus sponsors Thrasher Thursdays, a skateboard competition held at the Durango Skatepark every other Thursday for a 10 week period each summer. I have always been surprised how much waste one little skate comp creates. Single-use items are used for everything at the competitions. McDonalds often sponsors the competition through providing food for the competitors and they are far from environmentally healthy. For my LINK project I’m making a Thrasher Thursday competition green, by green I mean environmentally sustainable! I am implementing recycling bins, serving locally sourced burgers on paper plates and serving homemade lemonade as well as water in paper cups.
Reflection:
In all honesty, my LINK was not everything I wanted it to be. I put a lot of effort into finding something new and exciting that I would be passionate to learn more about. This led me to acquire an internship that I ended up realizing I didn’t like at all and then to one that I was already familiar with because of how passionate I am about skateboarding. It definitely was not a bad thing and I still learned a lot. My biggest challenge was definitely switching internships, through this process I came to fully realize that my strongest skill is social interaction, no matter what the context is I am a really good people person. My LINK did not change me or my ideas for the future, all it really did was made me certain that I do not want to be involved with the retail industry. It gets boring spending an entire day in a skate shop. I work in Customer Service at my actual job, which is a Bellman at The Strater Hotel. It is very engaging compared to the skateshop life. Now that I have this piece of information on what I do not like to do, I plan on taking classes like Spanish 4 next year that are tailored to my interests and prepare me for my life after high school. Essentially at this point in time I’m wanting to get better at being social by learning another language and socializing with people from another country. After I do that I will go to college.
Every Spring 11th graders at Animas High School are given the opportunity to undergo a three week internship called LINK (Leading Internships for New Knowledge). During those three weeks juniors act as if their internship is their full time job, there is no school scheduled for juniors for three weeks. This allows many students to travel, work unusual hours and all in all get the most out of their experience. We begin the process in the fall, contacting businesses, organizations or mentors that work in a field of interest to us. We start the process this early because often times mentors say no for many reasons, even if they are interested in being a part of the program. Many students still do not have a LINK by early spring, finding an internship can be a process.
My Process:
My friend Julian Gonzalez and I have an idea for a skateboard company. Initially we reached out to Paul Schmitt, the most well renowned skateboard manufacturer ever. It was an extensive process getting his contact information and unfortunately we never heard back from him. This bummed both of us out quite a bit. My first fall back idea was to intern at a local skate shop in Durango, this was a safe idea, but I already had spent a lot of time in our local skate shops and knew that I did not want to open up a retail shop of any kind as an adult. I really wrestled with the concept of finding a meaningful internship, but I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity and do something new or something that I’m very passionate about. This led me to get an internship at a hair salon on a random whim that my social self would enjoy conversing while styling peoples hair. I had a lot of confidence that this was a great idea for a month, then there was only one month left until LINK began. I started to doubt how much I wanted to do this internship, over time I grew less and less enthusiastic about the idea. LINK started on a Monday and the Friday before that Monday I got my hair cut at the hair salon that my internship was scheduled at. While getting my haircut I got really annoyed and realized that I did not want to spend three weeks there. On Monday I left early from my internship and asked John Agnew, the owner of the Boarding Haus if he would take me as an intern. He said yes and so the next day I went to Lemon Head Hair Salon briefly, had a very professional conversation with my mentor and the owner of Lemon Head, Alayna Mathews, and then left and finalized my internship at the Boarding Haus.
What is The Boarding Haus?
Established by John Agnew in 1995, The Boarding Haus is a skateboard shop in Durango, CO. Striving to promote positive culture beyond skateboarding in the action sports industry, snowboards and BMX bikes are also soled there but they are a skate shop at the heart of the business. I interned in the skateboarding side of the business under John’s leadership, who is an old school skater with a very impressive collection of old skateboards that create a very cool aesthetic in the shop. During the winter time he profits most off of selling and renting snowboards and snowboard equipment. Even though I am a skier, I recognize how important snowboards are to the shop in its entirety. The Boarding Haus is Durango’s premier board shop.
My LINK project:
The Boarding Haus sponsors Thrasher Thursdays, a skateboard competition held at the Durango Skatepark every other Thursday for a 10 week period each summer. I have always been surprised how much waste one little skate comp creates. Single-use items are used for everything at the competitions. McDonalds often sponsors the competition through providing food for the competitors and they are far from environmentally healthy. For my LINK project I’m making a Thrasher Thursday competition green, by green I mean environmentally sustainable! I am implementing recycling bins, serving locally sourced burgers on paper plates and serving homemade lemonade as well as water in paper cups.
Reflection:
In all honesty, my LINK was not everything I wanted it to be. I put a lot of effort into finding something new and exciting that I would be passionate to learn more about. This led me to acquire an internship that I ended up realizing I didn’t like at all and then to one that I was already familiar with because of how passionate I am about skateboarding. It definitely was not a bad thing and I still learned a lot. My biggest challenge was definitely switching internships, through this process I came to fully realize that my strongest skill is social interaction, no matter what the context is I am a really good people person. My LINK did not change me or my ideas for the future, all it really did was made me certain that I do not want to be involved with the retail industry. It gets boring spending an entire day in a skate shop. I work in Customer Service at my actual job, which is a Bellman at The Strater Hotel. It is very engaging compared to the skateshop life. Now that I have this piece of information on what I do not like to do, I plan on taking classes like Spanish 4 next year that are tailored to my interests and prepare me for my life after high school. Essentially at this point in time I’m wanting to get better at being social by learning another language and socializing with people from another country. After I do that I will go to college.