I have the Best. Internship. EVER.

Okay, so, intern orientation. I got to White Plains on Tuesday evening (after lugging my bags through the city’s biggest station, getting off at the wrong train stop and finding a taxi)…and the hotel did not have a room for me. Not the best beginning to the trip. As fate would have it, the other intern from my office, Justin, arrived just as I was checking in, so at least I wasn’t room-less and stranded alone. Everyone was really nice about the mix up though and we found me a room pretty quickly. I unpacked and relaxed for a little bit before heading down to dinner with the rest of the group – about 25 of us I’d say.

It was nice to have a informal ice-breaker type of activity before the official sessions start tomorrow. I got to know about half of the room (the other half was too far away to make conversation easy). There were people there from all over – New York, Ohio, Utah, Vermont, Boston, Texas – involved in a wide cross section of functions – HR, sales, accounting, analysis, marketing, research and development – and from all different education levels and backgrounds – undergrad, masters, PhD, business, engineering, food science. Overall it seemed like a pretty good group.

The next morning we were all bussed to HQ (and had yogurt for breakfast…anyone surprised?). We met the rest of the interns (about 35 in all) and began our sessions. Wednesday consisted mostly of “culture” information. We discussed CODE (“at Dannon, we’re Committed, Open, Doers, Empowered”) and the concept of HOPE (Humanism, Openness, Proximity, Enthusiasum) as well as the six pillar focus (Health Credibility, Nature, People, Blue Ocean, For All, Blockbuster). It was nice to learn the terminology everyone at the office has been using – conversations make MUCH more sense now! We broke for lunch, but I had to work because I had two huge reports due for Walmart the next day and only had internet access at the office. I got them mostly finished before it was time to leave for our Corporate Social Responsibility project.

We carpooled to the Food Bank of Westchester, and, after a brief overview and tour, we helped pack bags for the Backpack Program (a program started by a nurse in Arkansas that provides kids with food over long weekends and breaks) and helped dole out a gigantic box of macaroni into two pound bags for distribution. With so many of us there, the work went very quickly, and we were finished about an hour ahead of schedule. Once back at HQ, we had a quick wrap-up session, then were dismissed for the evening.

The group decided that the best way to spend our free evening would be to travel into the city for dinner. I made us dinner reservations and we caught the train to Grand Central. Once in the city, we stopped by Rockefeller Plaza for a few pics then had a fabulous dinner at Ruby Foo’s followed by cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery and a tour of Times Square. We then decided to trek downtown a bit to see the Empire State Building. After that we were pretty much beat, so we took the subway back to Grand Central (that was a mini-adventure in itself), and headed back “home.”

The next day was at little more “information” filled than the first. A representative or two from each department came to visit the group and talked to us about what their department did. We heard from marketing, sales, R&D, procurement (“sourcing and supplier development”), supply chain, finance, and even had a session with some previous interns who are now working for Dannon full time. I would have preferred a more interactive layout (especially after lunch – which I worked through again – when we were fading a little), but the information was good.

What was really exciting was hearing about all of the international opportunities available with Dannon. They will do their best to help you work abroad (for any amount of time you’d like), and you don’t have to wait ten years like you do with most companies. They have what they call “exchange missions” where you basically swap places with someone who does your job function in another country (like France or Spain), they even help you with language classes! I would LOVE to do that, and I never considered I’d be able to so soon!

After our sessions, we all took a bus back into the city to Chelsea Piers. We then boarded a private boat for a dinner cruise around the city. Have you seen the episode of the Office where Michael takes everyone out on the “booze cruise?” It felt like I had walked into that episode – just minus the awkward tension and love triangle. We ate, drank, and mingled with the exces all to the backdrop of the sparkling New York skyline – so much fun!  Have I mentioned I have the BEST INTERNSHIP EVER?

That was pretty much it for orientation. We all had pretty early flights the next day, so we all said goodbye before heading off to bed. Dannon sent a car to drive me to the airport the next morning (see? awesome internship!) and I caught my flight to Memphis. I spent the rest of the weekend there watching one of my best friends from high school get married (congrats Holly & Will!) before finally heading back to Fayetteville. Boy, was Gigi happy to see me!

That’s all for today – I’m going to go finish watching the Spain v. Portugal game (¡Viva España!) Thanks for reading!