Former Student Spotlight - Andrea Nisely

Andrea Nisely started with the U.S. Commercial Service as a State Department Virtual Student Federal Service (VSFS) Intern in the fall of 2021 while pursuing an MBA at the University of South Dakota.  The VSFS program is an eight-month internship for college-level, U.S. citizen students to work on projects of global importance. Andrea decided to apply as she was looking for business experience and the Rural Export Center seemed like a great introduction to the business world. During the internship, Andrea worked on Country Reports, researching the best potential markets and partners. She loved getting the chance to learn more about exporting and the impactful U.S. Commercial Service programs available to U.S. companies.

After earning an undergraduate degree in History at the University of South Dakota, Andrea spent the last 10 years being a military spouse and a stay-at-home mom in Alaska and Colorado. Andrea decided to earn an MBA and had to balance all her home responsibilities while working on her degree and completing the internship. She loved the flexibility of the internship as it was able to fit with her busy schedule. It was the best place to balance all those aspects of being a student and a parent. The internship’s time commitment was not overwhelming and the flexibility and understanding of the teammates made it manageable to “do it all.” This internship showed Andrea that she can balance school, parenting, and work. A great side benefit was being able to introduce her son to some of the concepts she was working on and demonstrate lifelong learning to him.

Andrea thinks the internship was a great introduction to the business world, exporting, and the U.S. Commercial Service. She loved learning something in class and being able to apply the knowledge in real-time during the internship. She also enjoyed the opportunity to ask questions and felt supported by all the staff in learning the position and she appreciated the weekly intern calls and networking opportunities that were provided. She believes the export knowledge she has learned will be useful in future positions. She enjoyed learning what to look for when beginning the exporting process as well as learning what makes a website internationally friendly.

When asked about advice for incoming students, Andrea replied, “Ask questions!! The Rural Export Center colleagues are wonderful teachers and enjoy passing on knowledge. Do not be afraid to ask questions as you can learn so much through your time as an intern.”

After completing the internship in May of 2022, Andrea transitioned to a part-time Market Research Assistant with the Rural Export Center. While continuing her MBA, she remained excited to continue to learn even more about exporting and to help rural exporters succeed.