Imagine the following three people: a young business school graduate starting a sex-positive, all-natural condom company with her father in New York City, a mom of five whose accidental creation of lightweight, leather earrings led to a booming e-commerce business, and the founder of an exotic hunting ranch the size of the island of Manhattan. What do they have in common? They’re all entrepreneurs with creative ideas and (spoiler alert) they were all interviewed by me during my ASME internship.

 

Before coming to Inc., I didn’t know a ton about business or how to report on it. But my past experiences had taught me that I loved journalism. As an intern at regional publications The Jewish Advocate and the Chagrin Valley Times, I discovered the way stories uplift their subjects and allow community members to bask in a shared sense of humanity. Working at Metro Boston, I saw the incredibly large ability publications have to incite tangible change. And as editor-in-chief of my college newspaper, I was able to see journalism as a tool not only to inform the community and hold institutions accountable, but to learn about the world around me.

 

In writing for Inc., I found all the things I love about journalism. Inc. profiles the stories of real Americans with innovative ideas to change how we live our everyday lives. I loved talking to these idiosyncratic characters and trying to glean from them advice for other future founders. Moreover, I learned how fun business journalism could be: Everything is a business, and writing about companies is a great way to learn about the world. And I was only able to make these crucial discoveries because my editors and supervisors trusted me. I was able to learn about all sides of the magazine — from fact-checking for print to writing for web — in an environment where I wasn’t treated as an intern, but as an equal.

 

This summer was truly eye-opening. I learned how to navigate at least five of the 27 New York subway lines, that New York bagels are the only bagels, but most importantly, that journalism is truly for me.