Grant Weitman pursued an entrepreneurial internship experience to launch a sports podcast.
Why did you choose this internship?
Something unique about my situation is that I am a student-athlete on the University of Arizona basketball team so I knew that finding an internship that could adapt to my almost year-round schedule would be difficult. I knew that I would need to do something flexible that allowed me to work on my own time. Another teammate and I had always talked about creating a podcast and I learned from the PAH 383 Pre-Internship: Building Career Readiness course that I could explore entrepreneurship as part of the internship experience. We began conversations about ideas for the podcast over the summer. Although managing school and basketball were a lot of work, it was still a fun experience and I learned a lot.
Another reason that I chose to do an entrepreneurship internship is because I want to own a business someday. I thought it would be a valuable experience to learn the tools necessary to start with an idea and turn it into something bigger and tap into my creative side. I also wanted to overcome the struggles and learn how to solve problems.
What did you find challenging about your internship?
Working on an entrepreneurial internship, I faced several challenges. One main challenge was that I had to move forward with the project with only one of my friends because two of the other original partners who we launched the idea with ended up being unavailable. I learned so much from this change and other unanticipated challenges and had to put my problem-solving skills to use. My partner and I were able to come up with ideas, write, and record the whole podcast episode we had been working on and that makes me proud.
What skills did you develop in this internship?
I was able to grow and develop many transferable skills during this experience. The skills that I developed included communication, problem-solving, and marketing. Another skill that I was able to grow was my creativity. For example, throughout this process, I was creative and thought of new ways we could move forward with producing the podcast despite our setbacks from the original plan. Finally, I also used my networking skills to get help with production and grow my connections.
How did your Applied Humanities major coursework help give you unique insight for the internship experience?
The most helpful part of this class was the meetings with Brittney Crawford and Stephanie Springer, the professors of PAH 493 Internship course. These meetings helped me and Pelle Larsson (my partner on the podcast) out a lot. Talking to them and getting advice during uncertainty and panic was very helpful. At one point, when we were feeling stuck after deciding to move forward without our original partners, we had a meeting with them. Brittney suggested focusing on a lot of the pre-work that goes into production and to start writing stuff down to work on when we had time to collaborate. Once I started planning and writing stuff down about the podcast, it helped so much, and we were able to film and create the podcast.
What advice do you have for other students as they search for and begin their internship?
For other students doing an entrepreneurship internship, my advice is to not give -- you can overcome the challenges you will face. Doing this type of internship will not be sunshine and flowers; you will go through challenging times where you think you can not overcome it. You need to take those challenges on the chin, and you need to keep on working toward your end goal. After the challenges, you will be able to create the thing that you planned on doing from the start.