Working in the Berkshires
Berkshire county is the western most part of Massachusetts that takes up the entire width of the state. It is a tight knit community and celebrates the beauty of the county. The Appalachian Trail runs through part of the Berkshires and it is something that the residents are very proud of. Even driving to my interview here I was amazed at how beautiful the area was. There is a lot of street art in the cities as well as several art museums, including MASS MoCA, the largest contemporary art museum in the nation. There are a lot of areas to go hiking apart from the Appalachian Trail as well as swimming, kayaking, and other outdoor activities.
One of the best things I like about The Berkshires is that it swells with entrepreneurs and small shop owners. There are some large chain companies around here (like TJMaxx or Walmart) but there are several companies that are startups or special to this area. For example, Guidos is a chain grocery store special to the Berkshires that my fellow intern describes as like a Whole Foods. We all often go to Dottie’s which is a café near where we work and is well known among the Berkshire community. There is something about being in an area with a lot of small shops that makes it seem more special and inviting.
I have been able to meet other interns in the area through the Berkshire Business Intern program that helped place me at Saraswati Imports. It is really cool to see their perspective in living in small towns and going to school in bigger cities. A lot of the students I met go to Umass Amherst or various schools near Boston. When working with the other two interns on my team, it is interesting to see their perspective on how to go about doing things and how they have learned to do them in school. Most of the interns I met really want to leave the Berkshire area after they graduate. This makes sense because everyone usually wants to leave their small town after they graduate. I am the same when it comes to my small town in central Massachusetts. I think the Berkshires is a great place to live after travelling and living in a big city after a while. It has a lot of culture and from different areas of the world as well as its own unique culture.