Student’s internship is just a day at the beach

Senior UCF student Kelsey Herrett packed up and moved across the country this summer to intern with a company located just steps from the Pacific Ocean. Herrett, an interpersonal/organizational communications major, interns with Liquid Force Boarding Company in southern California. Herrett spends her day as an intern working on social media sites, shipping stickers and rubbing elbows with the biggest names in the wakeboarding community. The Central Florida Future had the opportunity to interview Herrett about her internship in the Golden State.

Central Florida Future: What do you want to do with your major once you graduate?

Kelsey Herrett: I would love to be able to combine my three passions into one job: action/outdoor sports, philanthropic work and children. [I'd like to] possibly work in community relations for a sporting company, working to get the riders out to different charity events in the community. But I also want to start my own magazine, open an orphanage and have my own show on the Travel Channel.

CFF: How did you get the internship with Liquid Force?

Herrett: I scoped out the email address of a few big names I'd like to intern with this summer and got a hold of Matt Gleason, the marketing director at Liquid Force. I sent him over my résumé and inquired about the possibility of an internship. He got back to me right away, set up a Skype interview and the rest is history!

CFF: Why did you want to do this internship?

Herrett: Besides an awesome excuse to spend the summer in Cali? Definitely this company! If you are a fan of water sports, you know the name Liquid Force. They have been around since the sport of wakeboarding was a sport! They make anything and everything one would need for a fun day on the lake: wakeskates, wakeboards, wakesurfs, bags, helmets, tubes, hats…if you can name it and need it on the lake, Liquid Force makes it! Not to mention kiteboarding gear too! So you give me the chance to work for a company that makes gear for two of my favorite sports, sponsor some of the best riders in the industry, put on amazing events and whose office is two blocks from the ocean? Um yeah…I'm down!

CFF: Do you wakeboard/kiteboard?

Herrett: Yes! Although I'm far from anything impressive to watch on the water; I love both wakeboarding and kiteboarding.

CFF: What did you have to do to move to California?

Herrett: Well, It wasn't easy…or cheap. My lease in my apartment in Orlando wasn't up until the end of July, so I had to find someone to sub-lease my apartment, had to find a place out here in California, had to find another job in Cali to help me pay rent and had to figure out how i was getting out there. After searching multiple roommate sites, contacting people who knew people, and of course the beloved Craigslist, two weeks before I planned to move, I found an awesome place to live with an awesome roommate! I tossed around the idea of flying out, shipping my clothes and taking public transportation, but everyone warned me against not having my own car here. So i decided what the heck, I'll just road trip out there! So I talked my brother into joining me, packing my VEEDUBB [Volkswagen] and hitting the road. Three days and 2,436 miles later, here I am!

CFF: Tell me about how you furnished your apartment. I heard it had something to do with Craigslist?

Herrett: Well, I couldn't afford to pay much more than I pay in Orlando for a place out here. So for the same price I pay down south, I found an unfurnished room here. After two nights sleeping on a blow-up mattress and living out of a suitcase, I was over it. Anyone who knows me knows I'm addicted to Craigslist, and I tend to find some insane deals. I spent a few days browsing the goods and, on my brother's last day out here with me, we found a full bed, basically new mattress and dresser/desk all for $50, which I plan to re-sell before I leave and get all my money back!

CFF: What do you do at your internship?

Herrett: Anything and everything! I work on social media, updating the LF girls blog and Straight Line product blog/Twitter/Facebook, ship things, answer sticker requests, input warranty info, spreadsheets, send people replacement parts, paint, build shelves…I pretty much do whatever needs to be done!

CFF: Have you met any big names in the wakeboarding and kiteboarding industries?

Herrett: Yes! I got to meet Amber Wing the other day when she came into the office to tweak her new 2012 line of bindings! She's one of the best, if not THE best female wakeboarder in the world; super nice too! And of course, I get to work alongside the pioneer of wakeboarding, Tony Finn, every day! Tony invented the Skurfer, a hybrid of a water ski and a surfboard, in the late ‘80s and joined up with Jimmy Redmond to found Liquid Force and create the gear we know today! Pretty cool to be working with the legends!

CFF: What is a typical day in your life when you are interning?

Herrett: On the days I intern, I drive from my condo in Pacific Beach to Encinitas, where the office is. I get to work around [10 a.m.] and check in with my boss. He gives me the low-down of what needs to be done that day, and I get to work! I typically come in with a pile of the mail sitting on my desk. I go through it, mail people stickers and deliver it to the other people around the office. Its a super laid-back atmosphere and everyone is super nice!

CFF: Do you have any interesting stories of your time so far in California?