By Sarah Stone

Wilson College of Textiles students have returned to Centennial Campus this fall with more knowledge, skills, experiences and even a few job offers! 

It’s all thanks to their internships across the world in every field from healthcare to athletic apparel. 

Keep reading to find out more about dozens of Wilson College students’ internships, or use the links below to see internship experiences specific to the program you’re interested in.

B.S. FTM: Brand Management and Marketing
B.S. FTM: Fashion Development and Product Management
B.S. FTD: Fashion Design
B.S. Polymer and Color Chemistry
B.S. Textile Engineering
B.S. Textile Technology
M.S. Textile Engineering

Brand Management and Marketing Concentration (B.S. FTM)

Emma Felts 

Intended Graduation: May 2023 
Employer: Steve Madden
Title: E-commerce Merchandising Intern
Internship Location: New York City 

What were your day-to-day responsibilities? Did you work on any special projects?

On a daily basis I worked on tagging projects on Shopify, used Edited for competitor analysis and sat in on department meetings. I completed a competitive analysis project, comparing competitors’ websites to our own and seeing what we were on trend with.

What did you learn about yourself and what professional skills did you develop?

I have lived in North Carolina all of my life, so interning and living in New York really got me out of my comfort zone. I learned really how to be independent and also work in the corporate world. I learned how to schedule and manage my time and tasks between my daily tasks and my long-term project.

What was your favorite part of your time as an intern?

My favorite part of interning at Steve Madden were the intern events! We were able to visit the showroom, had a scavenger hunt around NYC, had weekly lunch and learns and also attended the company BBQ.

Carson Kraycik

Intended Graduation: December 2022 
Employer: Implus LLC
Title: Hosiery Merchandising Intern
Internship Location: Durham, North Carolina 

What were your day-to-day responsibilities? Did you work on any special projects?

Day-to-day I worked on creating line planners, sample trackers, receiving samples, setting up account meetings and anything else to help the account merchandisers. 

My main project was to create a strategic plan for Implus’ Amazon business to be a low-maintenance, profit-generating platform. My favorite moment was presenting my project to the executive board because afterwards they said “I schooled them” and they loved my deliverables.

How do you think your time at the Wilson College helped prepare you for your internship?

I learned a lot about retail math and forecasting calendars. These skills as well as the various case studies we have performed have helped me advance in the field.

How did this experience impact your college plan/career trajectory? Do you still want to pursue the same types of jobs?

This experience was on the wholesaler side of merchandising, and it made me realize I want to understand the retailer purchasing side. I loved meeting with buyers and I want to pursue something to see what it is like from the other point of view.

Brailey Nelson

Intended Graduation: December 2023 
Employer: Vow’d Weddings (Stand Out for Good)
Title: Buying Intern
Internship Location: Knoxville, Tennessee

What were your day-to-day responsibilities? Did you work on any special projects?

I worked directly with the head buyer and vice president to research new bridal trends to ensure we have the right product for our brides! My day-to-day normally included creating purchase orders, communicating with vendors and designers, and forecasting bridal trends for 2023.

I was also fortunate enough to sit in on leadership meetings and talk with the CEO and his team.

What did you learn about yourself and what professional skills did you develop?

I learned how to communicate professionally with my colleagues as well as vendors. I found out that I love being in the retail world; I also love being able to directly communicate with the designers to help develop our dream product.

How did this experience impact your college plan/career trajectory? Do you still want to pursue the same types of jobs?

I definitely want to become a Head Buyer now that I have hands-on experience. It is the perfect amount of creativity for a desk job while still being  a very fulfilling career!

Alyssa Saele

Intended Graduation: May 2025
Employer: NeoNiche Strategies
Title: Social Media Team Intern
Internship Location: Remote

What were your day to day responsibilities? Did you work on any special projects?

I scheduled posts, made graphics, sat in on meetings with clients, tracked post interactions, and reviewed and refined posts.

What did you learn about yourself and what professional skills did you develop?

I learned how to use the platform Sprout Social. I practiced public speaking skills as I shared the progress being made for our client. I got more comfortable sharing my thoughts and ideas with my general manager.

How did this experience impact your college plan/career trajectory? Do you still want to pursue the same types of jobs?

This internship gave me confidence that I do want to pursue marketing specifically with social media. It’s teaching me how to market in social media so I can translate that into a fashion and textile focused marketing job.

Nadhir Sait

Intended Graduation: May 2023
Employer: Nike, Inc.
Title: Sustainable Material Development Intern
Internship Location: Beaverton, Oregon

What were your day-to-day responsibilities? Did you work on any special projects?

My daily responsibilities included meeting material developers at Nike, attending large-scale intern events, meeting with sports apparel developers and consolidating materials based on technical properties. 

My special projects included a group project about data analytics, in which my group was a finalist, and also a personal project about sustainable sports apparel material development.

How do you think your time at the Wilson College helped prepare you for your internship?

I was truly shocked at how well my education prepared me for my internship. Going into Nike with an understanding of not only the terminology and jargon of the fashion industry, but also the financial aspects, the chemical aspects and even understanding the production process of textiles was so resoundingly helpful for me at Nike. 

When full time employees were discussing the production process and next steps, I was able to keep up. I never felt lost.

How did this experience impact your college plan/career trajectory? Do you still want to pursue the same types of jobs?

Truthfully, upon entering the Wilson College, I never could have foreseen myself working in athletic apparel. I applied for this internship on a whim, and I fell in love with every recruiter, interviewer and employee at Nike I met. I thoroughly enjoyed my internship at Nike and I put my heart into everything I did. 

Ultimately, I was offered a full-time job at Nike and will begin work there when I graduate. I couldn’t be happier to work for the company that celebrated my point of view, ethnic background and body of work.

Was there anything during your internship that surprised you? For example, realizations about the industry or lessons you learned.

One of the things that surprised me during my internship was that Nike has functional, internal support groups for underrepresented groups such as the Black Employee Network (BEN), N7 (Native Employee Network), Asian Employee Network (ASCEND), Women of Nike (WON) and so many more. 

You’re welcome to join these groups, even as an intern. I never struggled to find community on Nike campus.

Nate Wolfe

Intended Graduation: May 2025
Employer: STI Fabrics and their brands: Brentwood Textiles, and Revolution Fabrics 
Internship Location: Kings Mountain, North Carolina

What were your day-to-day responsibilities? Did you work on any special projects?

During my paid internship with STI Fabrics INC I helped the head designer for Brentwood Fabrics (their luxury brand). I also worked on their performance brand, Revolution Fabrics. Some of the things I accomplished during my internship include:

• Designing a new website for Brentwood Textiles. 
• Designing and naming some patterns for upholstery.
• Writing SEO blogs like this one on Revolution Fabrics’ website.
• Creating website and magazine content from scratch using industry-grade photography equipment. 
• Traveling with head designer of Brentwood Textiles, Kathy Dotterer, to High Point Furniture Showroom and giving input on how to improve the showroom. 
• Taking inventory and pictures of all Brentwood products in an STI warehouse.

What did you learn about yourself and what professional skills did you develop?

I learned that I am capable of much more than I thought. I saw supply chain management in action and learned about everything from where the company sources fibers, to the manufacturing process.

I also developed tons of communications and marketing skills such as SEO blog writing, product photography, website development, social networking, graphic designing and more.

How do you think your time at the Wilson College helped prepare you for your internship?

I was able to learn the basics of manufacturing and supply chain management which really prepared me for everything I saw and experienced.

The internship really increased my confidence in my major choice, and I am super excited for the rest of my time at Wilson College.

Fashion Development and Product Management (B.S. FTM)

Caitlin Hicks

Intended Graduation: May 2023
Employer: ROXY (owned by Boardriders)
Title: Product Development and Merchandising Intern
Internship Location: Huntington Beach, California 

What were your day-to-day responsibilities? Did you work on any special projects?

My responsibilities varied each day, but they included: checking in and processing fabric swatches and samples from mail, using Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems, creating style numbers in Salesforce, and organizing shot lists. 

During my internship I not only worked with the product development team, but also the designers, the marketing team and the merchandising team. I helped organize racks and attended photoshoots. I also went shopping with the merchandising team for  trend forecasting and competitive analysis. I then turned that analysis into a presentation.

What was your favorite part of your time as an intern?

My favorite part of interning was honestly the work environment. I enjoyed running into people from other Boardriders brands or departments. 

On National World Oceans day we hosted a beach clean up and picked up trash together which was an unforgettable experience.

How do you think your time at the Wilson College helped prepare you for your internship?

I was able to teach my teammates and other interns about CLO 3D; I was the only one who had experience with the software. I also already knew how to classify “woven,” “knit” and “swim” swatches from the mail. 

I didn’t realize my textile fiber knowledge would benefit me in this field, but it absolutely did.

I am so grateful for this opportunity, and I would not have been able to be where I am without the knowledge and experience I’ve gained at NC State.

Audrey Simons

Intended Graduation: May 2024
Employer: Montgomery Bridal
Internship Location: Cincinnati, Ohio 

What were your day-to-day responsibilities? Did you work on any special projects?

My responsibilities varied day to day but included assisting brides with finding their dream dress and fitting appointments, creating visual merchandise displays, collaborating with the business owner to purchase new inventory from the latest bridal lines, communicating with regional designer sales representatives, creating content for social media, accounting and organizing inventory, and more. 

I also worked with a bridal seamstress with 50+ years of experience who taught me bridal alterations techniques and aided her with bridal and bridesmaid consultations and alterations such as bustling dresses, adding sleeves, taking in and letting out dresses for more or less room, adding beading and buttons, hemming dresses, and more.

What was your favorite part of your time as an intern?

One of my favorite parts about my time as an intern was being able to work directly with the business owner. This allowed me to ask lots of questions about what running a business entails and to be more involved with making decisions for the shop, such as selecting new inventory. My boss had lots of entrepreneurship experience in bridal, so I enjoyed hearing the advice she had about successfully running your own business. I also loved being able to try on and model some of the dresses!

I have never worked in or considered a career in bridal before this experience but now, I’ve realized that I really enjoy the bridal industry and would be interested in potentially pursuing a career within the bridal industry.

How do you think your time at the Wilson College helped prepare you for your internship?

Some of the courses I’ve taken at the Wilson College were helpful to prepare me for my internship. When I was in the bridal shop, I found myself recalling ideas I had learned in some of my branding, marketing and business classes. When I worked in alterations, I relied heavily on the technical sewing and construction skills I learned in my product development courses.

Meredith Wood 

Intended Graduation: December 2022
Employer: Ride Equisafe
Title: Lead of Product Development and Design
Internship Location: Raleigh, North Carolina

What were your day-to-day responsibilities? Did you work on any special projects?

My responsibilities are always changing, but I love being kept on my toes! I am responsible for garment designs, product development, sourcing and pattern making. Taking on so many roles is out of my comfort zone, but it has taught me so much about the industry and about myself! 

The most exciting part of my job to me is that I am leading Ride Equisafe’s first-ever private line. We will be moving into production within the next couple of months, and I’m excited to see my garments at our store front!

One thing that surprised me was the niche aspect to the products we are creating. We create equestrian sportswear and, as someone who is not familiar with the sport, I was surprised by how many garment details need to be specific for the sake of competition.

What did you learn about yourself and what professional skills did you develop?

I learned that I prefer working for a small team versus a larger one, specifically because it allows me to be more hands-on throughout the entire cycle of product development and having more than one responsibility keeps the job interesting! 

Some skills I have further developed are my pattern making skills with CLO3D as an aid and sourcing skills.

What was your favorite part of your time as an intern?

For the product line we are developing, we wanted to keep our production in the USA and on the East coast. I wasn’t sure if this was going to be possible and I had my concerns. However, we found many cut-n-sew manufacturers in our area that will be able to facilitate us! 

This has been my favorite part so far because it’s shown me that the textile industry continues to thrive in places I didn’t expect it to!

How do you think your time at the Wilson College helped prepare you for your internship?

The Wilson College of Textiles has prepared me in so many ways, but I think overall it has been most important that my education has been so encompassing of the textile industry. It has prepared me to take on many responsibilities at once!

How did this experience impact your college plan/career trajectory? Do you still want to pursue the same types of jobs?

I have always wanted to be a pattern maker, so this job has given me the “real” industry experience I have been wanting. This job has also been a great reminder how complex product development is, but its intricacies have made me want to continue pursuing pattern making.

Jada Williams 

Intended Graduation: May 2024
Employer: Belk
Title: Sourcing Intern
Internship Location: Charlotte, North Carolina and Remotely

What were your day-to-day responsibilities? Did you work on any special projects?

My day-to-day responsibilities consisted of meeting with vendors to discuss fabric costs, assisting with daily PLM maintenance and updates for delivery, assisting in the execution of the timeline and rotational teams to build the private brands and ultimately working on a project to develop a material library to assist with consolidating fabrics into one place for designers. Additionally, I worked on a project to create a solution to fill the gray space area in performance for Belk’s Culture Shop.

What was your favorite part of your time as an intern?

My favorite parts of my time as an intern were participating in the sample sales, bonding with other interns and volunteering at a nonprofit that prepared backpacks full of school supplies for students.

How do you think your time at the Wilson College helped prepare you for your internship?

I think that the Wilson College of Textiles exposed me to a great deal of information that I relied on frequently throughout my internship. Because of my time at the Wilson College, I was familiar with a lot of concepts that I worked with day-to-day in my internship. I was able to go into the internship with a good understanding of these concepts while still learning a lot of new things along the way.

Fashion Design (B.S. FTD)

Veronica Humphrey

Intended Graduation: May 2023
Employer: Haddad Brands
Title: Legacy Intern
Internship Location: New York City

What were your day-to-day responsibilities? Did you work on any special projects?

My day-to-day focused mostly on assisting with a variety of responsibilities ranging from organizing Adobe Illustrator files to preparing for meetings and pulling inspiration tears for the Rookie USA fashion show. 

Haddad Brands also assigned me a special project – designing a sustainable capsule collection for Levi’s Kids. 

What did you learn about yourself and what professional skills did you develop?

I learned more about what area of the industry I’d like to go into. I also developed stronger skills in Adobe, making me more efficient when it comes to class projects. I gained a more extensive, industry-accurate vocabulary and a better understanding of how a designer operates in the industry in an intersectional work environment.

What was your favorite part of your time as an intern?

Mostly the team! I really became close with all of them, and they were truly supportive throughout my time there. I learned so much more because they pushed to have me seated with the team in meetings, so I truly felt like I was integrated into team dynamics.

Bella Reeves

Intended Graduation: May 2023
Employer: SPARC Group LLC (Lucky Brand) 
Title: Wholesale Intern 
Internship Location: New York City

What were your day-to-day responsibilities? Did you work on any special projects?

I was responsible for collecting data on orders and updating my team.

What was your favorite part of your time as an intern?

My favorite part as my time as an intern was forming connections with my coworkers and learning the business of a wholesale company.

How do you think your time at the Wilson College helped prepare you for your internship?

I knew the design process of the garments that we were selling, so now I understand the entire process from sew to sell.

Daryn Wilkerson

Intended Graduation: May 2023
Employer: Sareh Nouri
Title: Production Intern
Internship Location: Rutherford, New Jersey

What were your day-to-day responsibilities? Did you work on any special projects?

It changed a lot depending on what was going on. It mainly varied between making veils and sitting in on design meetings. 

I worked on veils for the current spring/summer ’22 and fall/winter ’23 lines. I also sat in and helped with designing for the spring/summer ’24 line.

What did you learn about yourself and what professional skills did you develop?

I continued to learn how to be even more flexible. I was working there during the wedding season, so everything was more hectic than any other time of the year. I also got to work on my hand sewing and learned how customer opinions and requests are turned into designs. Finally, I learned to communicate with factories you outsource to.

What was your favorite part of your time as an intern?

My favorite part of being an intern was that I did not work on a separate intern project, but I worked on actual day-to-day tasks. It gave me a realistic idea of what work will actually be like once I graduate. I always wanted to work in bridal and own my own business, so this verified everything for me.

Polymer and Color Chemistry

Chloe Patterson

Intended Graduation: May 2023
Employer: Atlantis 
Title: Shadow
Internship Location: Pavia, Italy and Calatayud, Spain

What were your day-to-day responsibilities? Did you work on any special projects?

Monday through Friday, I went to the hospital in the different cities and shadowed doctors in different specialties. I got to shadow doctors in OBGYN, emergency medicine, orthopedics, general surgery, and ear, nose and throat. I observed patient care and surgeries and learned about the health care systems of other countries.

What was your favorite part of your time as an intern?

My favorite part of my time as an intern was shadowing various different specialties and seeing which specialty I enjoyed the most. It was a very unique experience to be able to sit and watch surgeries. 

I also really enjoyed seeing the difference between the healthcare systems in Italy and Spain and comparing them to the United States.

How did this experience impact your college plan/career trajectory? Do you still want to pursue the same types of jobs?

Being able to shadow in various different specialties helped me to narrow down which specialties I enjoyed the most for a future career. I liked the OBGYN department the most and am hoping to find a career in infant and maternal health.

Was there anything during your internship that surprised you? For example, realizations about the industry or lessons you learned.

Italy and Spain have free healthcare. It was surprising to see all of the differences between their healthcare systems and the systems in the United States. For instance, medical records in the hospitals were kept on paper and stored in folders in both Italy and Spain.

Textile Engineering

Steven Key 

Intended Graduation: May 2023
Employer: Unifi
Title: Quality Assurance Intern
Internship Location: Madison, North Carolina 

What were your day-to-day responsibilities? Did you work on any special projects?

I investigated the Madison plant’s processes and procedures for stripping break backs. As part of this project, I audited existing SOPs on handling break backs. I tested air vacuum ports with different deniers of yarn and used statistical analysis methods to calculate how long to strip packages on each port. To simplify the procedure, I tested and recommended a new chalking method to reduce stripping time and waste while ensuring all the defective yarn was removed. Lastly, I assisted in designing a new vacuum port for the texturing machine to reduce a safety concern.

What did you learn about yourself and what professional skills did you develop?

Throughout my internship I was able to learn how to better work on my own during different projects. 

I also learned that most people around you want you to succeed and they will help in any way that they can. During my internship I also learned that having questions is a good thing because that means that you are trying new ideas that are challenging our way of thinking. 

One of the main professional skills that I developed was being able to give a big presentation in front of many people. After completing my internship I feel as though I am more comfortable speaking in front of large groups of people.

What was your favorite part of your time as an intern?

My favorite part of my time as an intern was being able to work on my own project and see the progress that I was making at the plant. Since my project was trying to improve a process at the plant it was extremely rewarding to see my work now being used throughout the plant.

How do you think your time at the Wilson College helped prepare you for your internship?

I would say that my time at the Wilson College of Textiles definitely prepared me for my internship because I already had an understanding of the machines being used and the yarns being created. 

Almost everything that I did while at my internship I had learned about in a classroom at the Wilson College. This made the transition to working very smooth because I already had this past knowledge from school.

Max Ring 

Intended Graduation: May 2023
Employer: Unifi
Title: Engineering Intern
Internship Location: Yadkinville, North Carolina

What were your day-to-day responsibilities? Did you work on any special projects?

I evaluated and mechanically improved a prototype that improves automation on texturing machines. I also created technical drawings and standard installation procedures for the mechanism and then calculated Return on Investment (ROI) for prototype implementation.

What was your favorite part of your time as an intern?

My favorite part of the internship was getting to know my boss, Brent Vestal, who has been with Unifi for over 40 years. I really enjoyed going to a Greensboro Grasshoppers baseball game with him and my fellow interns.

How do you think your time at the Wilson College helped prepare you for your internship?

The Wilson College of Textiles’ textile engineering program taught me the technical concepts of yarn spinning, making the learning curve at Unifi much smaller. 

My training in Lean Six Sigma through the Wilson Colleges helped me organize my project. I applied the Solidworks and Excel skills that I have learned as an undergrad to design the prototype and calculate the prototype ROI.

Textile Technology 

Erica Lally

Intended Graduation: May 2023
Employer: Lenovo
Title: LASR TCA Intern (Lenovo Accelerated Sales Rotational on the Technical Client Advisor team) 
Internship Location: Raleigh, North Carolina

What were your day-to-day responsibilities? Did you work on any special projects?

Everyday I sat in on internal and external calls with key account customers. When I was not on calls I was learning the specs on all the products and services Lenovo offered. 

With all the information I learned and was exposed to, I made Tik Toks to market Lenovo as a whole and my internship experience.

What did you learn about yourself and what professional skills did you develop?

I learned that I love working on a team that works towards a larger company’s bigger goals. I also gained so many presentation and communication skills that I will be able to use my senior year in the Wilson College and into my career!

How do you think your time at the Wilson College helped prepare you for your internship?

The Wilson College prepared me by teaching me the basics in so many different areas of study – from marketing to engineering – that I felt like I understood the technical side as well as the communications side of my internship so much faster than some of the other interns.

Was there anything during your internship that surprised you? For example, realizations about the industry or lessons you learned.

I had never worked for a major corporate company and especially not in computer engineering, so what I found the most surprising was how much unpredicted overlap there was between my textile degree and a computer based company.  Looking into jobs for post-grad, I definitely am looking for something where I can use both my communication skills and my STEM knowledge!

M.S. Textile Engineering

Claire Henson

Intended Graduation: May 2023
Employer: Under Armour
Title: Material Innovation Rookie
Internship Location: Baltimore, Maryland

What were your day-to-day responsibilities? Did you work on any special projects?

During my time at Under Armour (UA) I had the opportunity to work on a project that directly aligned with my passion for textile sustainability. 

I was fully in charge of designing and completing my project, which took up about 75% of my time. During this time, I worked cross-functionally with the lab team, material development team and pre-textile team. I ran my own lab tests and communicated with mills to find out more about my materials. 

The other 25% of my time I shadowed the material development team and learned how new fabrics are created.

How do you think your time at the Wilson College helped prepare you for your internship?

Wilson College prepared me so well for this internship. I had the foundational knowledge required as a material developer such as polymer and knit structure. I even impressed my team by being able to understand some of the more technical meeting jargon! 

Wilson College also prepared me by making sure that I know how to communicate with others on my team. I have had so many group projects and presentations that I found it easy to fit into the team dynamic at UA.

I was surprised how many NC State graduates work at UA! It was great having a community all the way in Maryland. It also helped my learning as they had a great understanding of my knowledge prior to coming to UA.

How did this experience impact your college plan/career trajectory? Do you still want to pursue the same types of jobs?

This experience confirmed that I want to be a material developer after I graduate. I definitely still want to pursue the same types of jobs and I know even more specifically that I want to be able to work on both in-line and innovation projects.

Swagata Nag

Intended Graduation: May 2023
Employer: Schuman Cheese
Title: Entrepreneurial Intern
Internship Location: New Jersey (Hybrid) 

What were your day-to-day responsibilities? Did you work on any special projects?

I was tasked with proposing a new innovation to the senior leadership team. I worked on sustainability and proposed the use of biodegradable alternatives to plastic packaging in the cheese packaging industry. 

My day-to-day responsibilities included meeting with various stakeholders within the company and their network. I worked with manufacturers of biofilms worldwide and also with food science and food allergy research groups across the U.S.

What was your favorite part of your time as an intern?

My favorite part of the internship was the various work trips I got to be on to the various cheese-making facilities of Schuman Cheese across the country. Not to mention I got free cheese tasting sessions with the cheesemakers and cheese experts from Switzerland with different kinds of premium cheese. 

How do you think your time at the Wilson College helped prepare you for your internship?

I was able to come up with my project proposal because of the information I gained from my courses at the Wilson College with my interest in sustainability.This helped me narrow my focus to the pressing issues regarding packaging.