Meet my new intern, Ashley. If you follow my daily feed on Instagram, you'll remember my quick post about her a couple of weeks back. She has been working with me for a few weeks now and I just wanted to take a moment to introduce her.
Ashley is a fashion design student at the local college, with a focus on textile design. I wasn't sure we had room for an intern on our team, but Ashley was enthusiastic, self-confident and pleasantly tenacious—all great qualities.
In short, she impressed me into a yes.
They say, fortune favors the bold. This is absolutely true. Add talent and style to the mix, and you have great odds for success.
So, I have a fun story about Ashley. The day we first met up, after I returned to my desk from our lunch together, I came across a press release for a design competition from Aquafina in my inbox. Often enough, such emails get dismissed or filed away. However, this time, without reading over the details too closely, I forwarded the email to Ashley and then forgot all about it.
A couple of weeks later, Ashley came into work and said, "Remember that contest you sent me? Well, I'm a finalist!" (Of course, I only vaguely remembered forwarding some-kinda-something to her, so I can't claim a lick of credit for this.) It turned out the contest was for a fashion sketch and the four finalists would be treated to a fully-paid trip to New York City and tickets to the Project Runway finale. Ashley's submission not only won her a top spot amongst the entries, but her tenacity in securing Facebook votes paid off big-time. She and her husband spread the word every which way and asked for help—they even passed out flyers at the mall. Impressive, huh? Way to make things happen.
So, less than a month after our first meet-up, that is, less than a month after I forwarded an unassuming little email her way, Ashley and her husband flew to New York just last week and had a seriously good time of it. The trip included several days to do their own thing in the city. Unfortunately, due to inclement weather, they had to fly back west before the Project Runway finale show was taped—or risk being stuck in town for several days longer. But, to make up for it, Aquafina is going to fly her out for the next finale show. We'll have to pick her brain then, right? :-)
Pretty cool, huh? And all because she went for it—and is talented too—that always helps—the same reasons why she'll be working here with me while she finishes up her degree.
So, say hello to Ashley. And if you cross paths with her while following up on an order or calling in for whatever reason, give her a big, warm welcome.
