Bach Nguyen, BA Class of 2026, worked as an operational management intern this past summer and won his company’s “Best Intern” award. He reflects on how DRBU prepared him for his summer internship and how his internship gave him a new perspective on his studies, and offers advice to other students interested in pursuing a summer internship.
Philosophy, in its nature, is transformative. However, how philosophical theory transforms us is different from how philosophical practices transform us. Moreover, the transformation can vary depending on the particular conditions and circumstances.
Regarding the theoretical aspect, the insight I gain from reading a text by myself differs from what I gain after discussing it with my class. The wisdom I gain from talking about the same text with my friends late at night in the dorms is also different. Moving to the level of embodiment, taking that same insight and putting it into practice in daily interactions with others in the DRBU community gives me a completely different level of understanding. The same theory, put into practice in interactions with people outside the DRBU community, carries another distinct insight. Even though the way the insight transforms me varies depending on the conditions, my understanding of the theory deepens every moment this happens. It’s like playing a game. There are levels and obstacles, and once we master level one, the game will move us to level two. The more we play the game, the more our understanding of the game deepens. From my experiences, applying the philosophical insights I learned at DRBU to the world outside DRBU is the “Boss Level”—the highest level. What do I have in my arsenal that can help me with this Boss Level? How did DRBU help me prepare for my summer internship?
Now, DRBU has supplied me with everything I need to go out and start my internship. However, the most crucial piece lies in whether or not I’m even aware that I have these tools DRBU gave me. I could carry Doraemon’s magical pocket filled with everything I could ever need, but without knowing I have it, it would all be in vain. Fortunately, I had enough self-awareness to remind myself that I was carrying Doraemon’s magical pocket—which would support me in every circumstance. In that light, let’s briefly go through the tools that DRBU afforded me and which helped me prepare for my summer internship.
At DRBU, I have made friends with amazing individuals, who are always there for me and back me up. At DRBU, I have learned to embody a mindset that allows me to interact with people in a way that causes the least amount of affliction. At DRBU, I have developed a disciplined routine that serves as a firm foundation for whatever I decide to do. At DRBU, I have grasped the way of being inwardly still amid all the chaos that’s happening around me and maintaining crystal-clear clarity when making decisions or when going into different situations. All of these supports play a pivotal role as a helping hand when I fall—something that always pulls me back on the right track, both mentally and physically. All of them began with my journey at DRBU, and I’m glad that I realized I had them when I started my internship.
You might wonder, man, why did this guy need all these different supports? What did he go through that sounds so crazy? It’s just a summer internship, what’s so serious about that? My apologies for making it sound so dramatic (feel free to laugh), but here’s a brief intro about my internship. I worked as an operational management intern at a retail store on the border of the Tenderloin district in San Francisco. The Tenderloin is a dangerous neighborhood in San Francisco, where there are a considerable number of drug users and shoplifters. My workplace was like a watering hole in the middle of the desert for shoplifters. It was their number one target. While I had an intern project that primarily focused on boosting sales for the store, I also participated in helping the manager with operational tasks such as product merchandise, barcode scanning, inventory management, and sometimes working as a cashier.
Regarding my project, I aimed to improve the store’s owned brand products by $2000 in two months. By analyzing sales metrics and customer behavior reports, I optimized product merchandising areas to maximize their selling potential. This resulted in a $14,000 increase in sales over two months and earned me the “Best Intern” title. For the project, I used a variety of skills such as analytics, communication, negotiation, and information organization, which I gained through my Liberal Arts degree at DRBU.
The toughest part of the internship was dealing with aggressive customers at the store when I helped out as a cashier. Whenever someone would come up with an intense wave of negativity, I would take a deep breath and heighten the awareness of what was arising in my mind by asking myself, “How am I doing?” My internal conversation would look like this: How am I doing? I think I’m okay, but I also see a spark of anger and negativity arising in resonance with an external source of energy… That’s okay, this emotion arises, so let it be. I’m not going to try to suppress it or cling to it. Just observe. This way of handling the situation comes from the Platform Sutra1, which we read in our Buddhist Classics class: “Each [living being] must be liberated from within your own nature…. [This] means liberating the living beings of false views… by means of right views…. When falseness occurs, liberate it with truth.” I believe this is what a philosophical theory looks like in practice. When emotions arise, the truth is that they arise. If we add even a tiny bit of meaning to that, we take that emotion as our identity and become the representation of that emotion. Then “falseness occurs.”
Putting myself in a completely different condition, the insights about the stillness of the mind found in the Platform Sutra are deepened. I learned more when I was not at school than when I am, as outside DRBU, I can embody my learning and touch its core. We learn to swim not just by reading books, but by immersing ourselves in water—discovering the unique movements that work for us, struggling to find them, and likely swallowing a fair amount of water before we truly learn how to swim.
For my DRBU friends who are thinking about trying out a summer internship, I strongly encourage you. It will be tough, yet we learn during hardship much more than when we’re in our comfort zone. Go for it, and don’t be afraid of falling. Actively prepare your mindset to learn from when you fall, and to stand up afterward, better equipped. No matter what happens, you’ll always have the friends you made at DRBU, the knowledge you gained, and your resilience to support you. Jiayou (加油)!
- The Sixth Patriarch’s Dharma Jewel Platform Sutra. Buddhist Text Translation Society, 2014, p. 56.
