Internships draw to a close, but the lessons learned live on

Internship Insider

has focused on giving readers ideas about how and where to pursue internships, and to encourage people to think creatively about these "practice'' work experiences. As summer winds down and I say goodbye to my own intern, whose assistance has been invaluable to me in recent months, it's only natural that I think about how and what he has learned while working with me.

When the internship began, we each had a loose picture of what the experience would look like. I thought an intern would largely do background research for me, interviewing professionals in the human resources field or checking in with people who run various companies' and organizations' internship programs and providing that information to me for use in the column.