Growing gains: Student explores career opportunities through URSF
Xinru Arritt learned about UR Summer Fellowships (URSF) during an admitted students tour before her first day on campus, but didn’t discover its full potential until two years later when she wanted to explore the potential of adding additional areas of study to her degree.
“I thought a marketing, sales, and strategy role would be beneficial in preparing me for future degree courses and learning key industry functions,” she said.
A junior, Arritt knew of Babylon Farms, a company specializing in sustainable indoor hydroponic farming, from the Galleri, a commercial indoor farm, located in the business school’s atrium. “I was drawn to and fastinated by the Galleri,” Arritt said. “It is specatacular to look at, while at the same time practical.”
The microfarm in the Robins School is a sustainable, year-round growing system which supplies sustainable greens to retail dining locations, like Lou’s, on campus.
Arritt learned that Babylon Farms was headquartered in Richmond and applied for a marketing, sales, and corporate strategy intern role. “As a start-up, there was an expectation that I take on projects without micromanagement, so my day-to-day could vary,” Arritt said. “I learned a lot about the sales and marketing functions—identifying prospects, the lead funnel, creating promotional materials.”
She worked on a variety of projects, from creating short form video assets and educational prospecting to documenting processes to create templates and outlining a video podcast series. “The agency to manage my own time and projects, and the trust in me to choose correctly, was the most rewarding part of my internship,” she said. “It really challenged me to apply quickly and efficiently what I learned in my classes. The value of these kinds of experiences is that students get to see and learn firsthand what working is like.”
As a finance student, Arritt has plans to work in financial advisory after graduation, but said the internship convinced her to double concentrate. “I wasn’t sure if I was interested in entrepreneurship, but I now know that being well rounded and having strong sales skills will help me as a financial advisor,” she said. She hopes to take her finance and entrepreneurial skills to one day open her own advisory firm.
After her experience with Babylon, Arritt spent the remainder of her summer as a Financial Advisor Development Track Fellow at JPMorganChase.
“I really hope students know that opportunities with URSF are risk-free,” Arritt said. “You get to learn about other fields you might enjoy, while also being paid for your work. That is so valuable.”