Celebrating National Interns Day 2026
Northwest University Career Services
An internship is a leap of faith on both sides. A student steps into an unfamiliar place and says, “I’m ready to contribute.” A business looks at someone still early in their journey and says, “we’ll invest in you anyway.”
National Interns Day is our chance to honor that exchange. This year, NU students interned in law offices, tech companies, and mission fields, and came back with new skills, new confidence, and a clearer sense of where they’re headed. Here are a few of their stories.
Student Spotlights
Lillie Wilkerson - El Refugio, Panama City, Panamá (Fall 2025, Intercultural Studies)
For three months, Lillie Wilkerson worked alongside missionaries Tara and Gerritt Kenyon at El Refugio, a daytime and after-school center where kids can play games, work on schoolwork, and simply have a safe place to be. She spent most of her time doing exactly that: playing, laughing, and building real connection with the children.
As an Intercultural Studies (Missions) major, the experience gave her a firsthand look at what missionary life actually involves, and made a big idea feel a whole lot smaller.
“Spending that time in Panama made the idea of living in a different country a whole lot less scary. Even though I didn’t speak a ton of Spanish, I was able to play and interact with the kids in a way that left all of us smiling and laughing.”
Her advice to students: take initiative and stay present. That’s how you make the most of an internship.
Ethan Russell - OneAccord (Administrative & AI Intern)
Ethan Russell spent his internship building an AI agent to help create and edit standard operating procedures, pulling together different tools, organizing the output into a clean system, and designing workflows from the ground up.
“It was fascinating to create agents and workflows, and how they would create things that I couldn’t do all by myself.”
It’s exactly the kind of hands-on, future-ready work that turns curiosity into capability.
Robert Hinman - OneAccord (Remote AI Sales Intern)
Robert Hinman took on a project with a clever payoff: transcribing business and sales-advice videos and synthesizing them into a database that trains an AI coach, which in turn helps the company’s sales reps sharpen their skills.
“I enjoyed learning how to use different AI models for the first time, and subconsciously learning about sales while checking for errors in the transcripts. It was very eye-opening.”
Two skill sets, picked up at once. That’s an internship working exactly as it should.
From Our Partners
“We’ve hosted NU interns from summer to school year and even hired full-time. The character of NU students is what aligns with our firm’s priorities. We get to work with high-integrity individuals, discover their strengths, and plug them into opportunities that serve our clients well and provide growth for the students. We love the mutual value provided to the community, students, and our clients.”
Scott Bothel, Polaris Injury Law
Thank You to Our Partners
As a Jesus-first university, we care deeply about where our students spend their time and who helps shape them. Thank you to the businesses who made room for a student this year. An internship site does more than fill a role. It shapes a career, and it lives out the kind of mentorship and generosity we hope to model. To every organization that mentored, challenged, and believed in an NU student, thank you: Polaris Injury Law, OneAccord, El Refugio, and more.
Your Story Could Be Next
Students and alumni: completed an internship worth sharing? Employers: interested in becoming a future intern site? Career Services would love to hear from you.
Sarah Hommas
Career Services Lead & Student Support Advisor | Academic Success & Advising Office
sarah.hommas@northwestu.edu | northwestu.edu