Spreading Hope Amid a Pandemic: Lydia, Human Resources Intern

While many summer internships and jobs have either been called off or postponed due to the pandemic, TWR has managed to bring on board six college-aged interns this summer, one of them being Lydia Bentley, an incoming junior at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

A human resources management and Japanese double major, Lydia is serving as a human resources intern with TWR this summer. She looks forward to expanding and utilizing the knowledge and skills she has learned at college in a real-world setting.

Q: How did you hear about TWR?
I actually found it online, through a job searching website!

Q: What brought you to intern with TWR this summer?
I was looking for internships this past summer and was having a lot of difficulty. In my original plan, I was hoping to find a HR internship in Japan. However, HR isn’t as common in Japan and internships are not typical there. I changed my plans but had a lot of difficulty getting responses from internship programs in the United States. Just as I was about to give up, I found TWR’s internship program, and it seemed perfect. I feel as though I was brought here by God, because without his guidance, I would never have found TWR.

Q: What will you be working on over the summer?
I am working in the HR department and have a wide variety of tasks I’ll be working on. These include developing employee information resource pages, researching potential new programs and much more.

Q: How does your internship align with your passions and calling?
My greatest passion is helping people. HR is a field specifically intended to help workers in an organization do their job as best as they can. I’m very excited to have a real impact on the work of those working at TWR.

Q: What is the biggest challenge you’ve encountered in your internship and how have you overcome it?
I feel as though I’ve come into this internship with very little idea of what I’m doing. In some fields like writing or programming, it’s very easy to transfer your classroom knowledge to workplace ability, but it’s very difficult to do that in HR. I’ve been having to teach myself a lot of the knowledge or skills that I need to do my work, which has been a little difficult.

Q: What do you hope to achieve during your internship?
I’m hoping to gain real, practical experience in HR. School has prepared me for many aspects of working in this field but having an actual understanding of how things work in the real world gives me a lot of peace of mind.

Q: What is one thing you have learned this summer?
I’ve learned a lot about how to handle myself and my work schedule. My supervisor has given me a lot of flexibility to determine when I complete various tasks, and without self-discipline and motivation, it would be easy to just let things slip away from me. I’ve had to figure out just how to balance getting work done and being overwhelmed, but it’s been a good experience and I’m glad I learned it.

Q: Tell us a little-known or fun fact about yourself!
I have never eaten baby corn.