This blog series offers a glimpse of reSET’s summer internship program in entrepreneurship. The series aims to capture interns’ experiences, both with reSET’s curriculum and the startups that they are working alongside. Our third blogger, Urmi Thaker, is a student at The University of Connecticut.

Since graduating high school, I’ve been unsure about the career path that I want to take. I’ve considered multiple–from teaching to languages and ultimately, business. Within business, I’ve choosen to focus on management which has left me in a bit of a place of uncertainty seeing how broad it is. As a person who loves planning ahead for almost everything, not knowing what I’ll do for my career is truly terrifying. Although, I know that everything happens for a reason and I’m glad one of those things was being hired as a reSET intern. 

I was first introduced to reSET at UConn’s career fair. And as I conversed with Jeremy and Hibba, I knew that this would be the perfect internship for me. I had just learned about start-ups from one of my management classes and I was so excited for “real world” experience. The two amazing companies with whom I’m working now are FieldOwler and My-Springboard. One allows me to strengthen my research and presentation skills, while the other allows me to expand my creativity and social media skills. I truly wish them both a successful future and am so thankful for the opportunities they’re giving me.

In addition to working on projects this summer, my fellow cohorts and I are participating in professional development classes, where we learn about analyzing all areas of starting a new company. We’ve learned how to properly conduct research on customers to find out how to best reach them, how to make the product personal, and so much more. Not only do we get to learn about filling market voids, but we are actively using this information to create our own start-up. The company a few other interns (Hayley & Lacey) and I are working on will bring fresh, locally grown cut flowers to communities all year round. With the help of aquaponics, unique blooms can be grown anywhere, regardless of the outdoor growing conditions. While we are still working towards narrowing down the direction we want to go first, we are committed to our idea. Each one of us has a different background with unique experiences, and we are stronger as a team with the goal of taking our company to the next level.

Overall, the best part of the internship has been the people I’ve met. My colleagues have brightened my days and are extremely understanding. The reSET team has provided a strong support system, allowing us to comment and share on/about everything that’s happening, while also giving advice along the way from their personal experiences. It’s hard to imagine we only have 6 more weeks to go, but I am eager for what comes next!