Erin Choplin, a senior in graphic design, had the chance to intern in California over the summer with TOMS Shoes, a company that both sells shoes to the public and gives them away to needy children. Choplin said she worked in the creative department in digital design to create the banners that go on websites.

“They have a U.S. website and an international website, so a lot of stuff I actually did was for the international site,” Choplin said. “There’s also some banner ads that show up on blogs and other things you read when you see a TOMS ad. We do those too.”

After she noticed “a friend of a friend” wearing the brand one day, Choplin said she became curious about the company and checked out their website. That’s where she found the information for the internship.

“I actually applied for the internship that same day. It was a really long application, a lot of essay questions. For the creative department I had to submit a portfolio,” Choplin said. “It was really long time to wait too, so I got a call a couple of months after I completed my application.”

Being a graphic design major at N.C. State, Choplin said her studies here were similar to the meetings there.

“The first day we had a brainstorming meeting for the holiday campaign. It was really similar to the brainstorming I do in studio,” Choplin said. “A lot of the critiques we did at TOMS were similar also. Just throwing out ideas, little changes here and there, what works best and stuff like that.”

The focus of the internship at TOMS was not just for design experience, but also to promote the company’s mission statement. Caroline Marshall, intern coordinator for TOMS Shoes, said it is important that people understand that the company gives, not donates, because they work through different partners to actually make sure the shoes are hand-placed on the kid’s feet.

“We have our mission statement; we say TOMS, one for one. For every pair that you purchase, TOMS will give a new pair of shoes to a child that is in need, one for one,” Marshall said. “TOMS stands for Shoes for Tomorrow, because you buy a pair of shoes and then kids are getting a new pair of shoes for tomorrow.”

Choplin said a lot of people have questions about the company giving a pair to children in need, but the company is being very transparent and responsible about the way they give.

“They don’t give the same shoes that the people buy because they’re a lot more durable for the kids — with the different terrain they have, the soles are different. Sometimes they’re even like rain boots, if they need that style,” Choplin said. “It’s a really fun company to work for overall.”

Eric Pieper, a graphic designer for TOMS Shoes, said Choplin came in ready to take care of business.

“She had obviously done her homework on the brand before she got here, which is great. She hit the ground running. We just gave her anything from resizing some stuff that was already created – just to make it into new sizes and get it out to the world – and she proved her hand quickly at that,” Pieper said. “Then we were able to trust her with coming up with her own creative designs for other projects, where she took the total lead on how things turned out.”

For Choplin to have been chose for the job, Pieper said it meant she really stood out during the application process.

“There are so many people who apply for [the internships], so the people who are chosen really have stood out for some reason – they’re the crème of the crop of that respective field for the people that have applied,” Pieper said. “I think for the [internship] Erin was in there were over 7,000 people who applied for the 14 or 15 positions that were here. It’s amazing the feedback we get from those.”

Choplin was trusted with a heavy workload and total creative reign, as well as mini-projects, which Pieper said is quite an accomplishment for an intern program.

“Erin’s overall attitude when she was here – when things got stressful she was able to keep a calm head. She had tons of initiative,” Pieper said. “If she had a problem or didn’t have the assets she needed for a project, instead of twiddling her thumbs or wondering what to do she would just go grab a camera and just start shooting shoes or figuring out all different ways to get the end result we needed. That’s what we really love to have in an intern, somebody who really wants to take the bull by the horns.”

And her work didn’t stop after the summer program ended.

“She’s continuing to do some work for us while at school, which is the first time I think an intern has ever done that at TOMS,” Pieper said. “So that kind of speaks to how much we enjoyed having her here.”