Luther senior Zakithi Nkosi interns at Premium Solutions

Luther senior Zakithi Nkosi of Manzini, Swaziland, spent the summer as an intern at Premium Solutions.

Nkosi, daughter of Philani Nkosi of Manzini, Swaziland, and Nkosinathi Nkosi of Johannesburg, South Africa, is a 2014 graduate of Waterford Kamhlaba United World College. She is planning on graduating in 2019 with majors in Management and Communication Studies.

Premium Solutions is a marketing consultant business located in Winsor Heights, Iowa. Working as a promotional product consultant and distributor, Nkosi’s internship involved coming up with promotional product ideas for various events and clients. Nkosi said she “became intrigued about how industry trends on a larger scale can be studied and strategically implemented. It was definitely a career-confirming experience for me.”

Nkosi said she has learned “how creative I can be. Although my internship did not have any ‘traditional’ creativity involved, there was still a lot of imagination involved in assisting clients with their marketing and promotional plans.” After graduating from Luther, Nkosi hopes to go into marketing or brand strategy.

Approximately 10 percent of Luther students take an internship for academic credit each academic year. The Luther College Career Center assists students with their internship search through resume preparation, networking, online internship searches, career fairs, on-campus interviewing, and connecting the student to alumni through the college’s Alumni Internship Program. Students also meet with a faculty adviser prior to the internship to create an internship learning plan that includes learning goals and assessment benchmarks.

An internship work supervisor assists in the process by writing an evaluation of the student at the end of the internship. Students also complete a self-reflection form to help finalize the learning experience.

A national liberal arts college with an enrollment of 2,005, Luther offers an academic curriculum that leads to the Bachelor of Arts degree in more than 60 majors and pre-professional programs. For more information about Luther visit the college’s website: http://www.luther.edu.