In Baton Rouge, those who thirst for high fashion are often forced to seek it through magazines, blogs and even reality TV.   
Almost everyone has indulged in at least one episode, be it “The City,” “Project Runway” or “The Rachel Zoe Hills.'”
Hutchinson said the only part of his internship that resembled reality TV was the occasional office coffee run, which wasn’t a daily occurrence.
Hutchinson said when people watch fashion shows, they don’t realize how much hard work and dedication goes into producing garments.
All University textiles, apparel design and merchandising students are required to complete either an internship or a course called Entrepreneurship in Human Ecology for credit toward their degree.   
Yvonne Leak, textiles, apparel design and merchandising professor and internship coordinator, said an internship is highly recommended.   
Most students choose to intern the summer after they have completed all of their course work.  
“The ideal arrangement would be for the company the student is interning with to offer the student a job at the end of the internship,” Leak said.  
She said some companies use the interning period as a training program for new employees.
Although acquiring an internship will help a student get a foot in the door of the fashion industry, it is no easy accomplishment.
Both Everritt and Hutchinson said they received little to no feedback from multiple companies to which they applied. Rios said she didn’t receive any responses from the companies with which she was particularly interested in interning.
Hutchinson said he landed his internship with Diane von Furstenberg through networking on the social media site LinkedIn. He said there’s benefit to knowing someone in the company for which one is applying because major fashion companies get multiple interns applying daily, and it’s easy for one application to get lost amongst the sea of others.
Another problem budding University designers face is their geographic location. The major fashion markets in the United States are located in Dallas, Los Angeles and the largest in New York City.  
Leak said local internships aren’t of lesser quality, but that there are usually fewer opportunities for design students because the majority of local internships are in retail.  
Leak said students have more opportunities if they’re willing to complete their internship outside of Baton Rouge.  
In addition to the cost of travel, students must also account for the cost of living associated with the area in which they plan to intern.
“Design internships are generally unpaid,” Leak said.  
Hutchinson said he was surprised when he landed a paid internship with a salary of $20 a day, and he didn’t know anyone else who was paid during their internship.
While Hutchinson enjoyed being able to see how the industry functions in real time, working for such a large company also had a downside. He said there were constantly five to six interns at a time, and it was difficult for him to network.
Everritt interned with a smaller, foreign company and said she felt her experience was valuable.
“I got to work one on one with the designer every day,” Everritt said. “She was really focused on teaching