Why I Love Being an Intern at Vera Bradley

Each week, the Vera Bradley interns have the opportunity to meet with and learn from representatives from the various areas of the company. While I’ve enjoyed all of the presentations, the last two have definitely been my favorites.

Last week, we had lunch with our Co-founders, Barbara Bradley Baekgaard and Patricia R. Miller, two of the most classy and driven ladies that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Even though we’ve all heard the Vera Bradley story countless times, we asked that they tell us their own account of it, since they were the ones building this company from the ground up. It’s clear they have been so successful because they are first and foremost friends. They began their company by hiring more friends and eventually ended up with this amazing company culture.

A few weeks ago we had my favorite presentation yet, at the Vera Bradley Store at Jefferson Pointe in Fort Wayne. I am a frequent visitor, so I loved having an excuse to be there during work hours. Not only was it interesting to hear about how they create the customer experience, but we also got to shop around when it was all done (talk about a great day at the office)!

All of the interns, the Assistant Store Manager Julie (pictured second from the right), and the Store Manager Debora (pictured far right).


Debora, explaining the visual merchandising aspects of the store.


We had the chance to ask questions, so I had her explain new product releases.


It was a great day at Jefferson Pointe for all of us (note the beautiful bags)!


As we were leaving, the Vera Bradley truck was arriving. I wonder what beautiful things are in there ...

Thinking back to all of the presentations we have had, I realize my summer at Vera Bradley is more than halfway over. We only have three weeks of these presentations left, and then we give our own presentations about our summer projects. The group we will be presenting to includes the entire Human Resources team, Barb and Pat, the Executive Team and all of the mentors. It’s going to be a full house! It feels so bittersweet to be thinking of going back to school already, because I’m definitely missing all of my friends at Butler, but I’m not ready to leave my internship yet. It’s been entirely too much fun!