Balancing School and an Internship: How I use time management to foster success 

By Stone Montgomery

As a senior Business Management major at Hampton University who is also interning at the Gardner Institute, participating in several spaces including the Retention, Persistence, and Student Success Academy, I’ve discovered that juggling both academics and an internship will likely resemble walking on a balance beam. Preparation is my best resource as I compete with myself in the Olympics in my final year.

My academic schedule this year consists of 20 credits across 7 classes each week. To put it more plainly, my calendar is jam-packed. More specifically, I will also be juggling many projects and work for each of my classes. These classes include Business Communications, Business Law 1, and Personal Finance to name a few. I tried my best to be thoughtful about how I wanted to design my senior year. For my freshmen, sophomore, and junior years I did my best to frontload with most of my required coursework related to my major. Nonetheless, here we are.

Additionally, I endeavor to be active in my campus community for my last year. The social calendar of a senior is expansive; whether I’m attending talks, career planning sessions with my advisor, or senior convocation, a lot is competing for my attention. That said, this internship opportunity is an important challenge for me. I asked myself, how do I show up for this role at Gardner and deliver 100 percent while staying accountable to the other areas of my life? I see this as the tailgate to the next phase of my life.

This is where time management comes into play. All of the above require my focus and good prioritization and planning not to mention a good mindset. My strategy is to set a goal each week with a plan of attack and then work on that plan all week so that I stay on track. The plan is to use each weekend to review upcoming due dates, workgroup projects, and complete assignments. I also build in about three hours to either take a break or take time for myself and then an hour or more per day to work on my job requirements so I’m never rushing to the finish line. The hope is that I set myself up weekly to get the job done.

The other balancing act between school and an internship is knowing when to say “no” or when to carve out time for yourself. As I stated I try to carve out a few hours a week for “me time”, as much as I want to overachieve, I’ve learned that burnout is real. This hit me hard during my sophomore and junior years so this year it is also my goal to be proactive about scheduling time for hobbies and relaxation. We are in the early stages but as we continue to check in over the next few weeks, I will keep you posted on my progress. With that, I have to go- time to work on my plan for next week.

Stone Montgomery, Class of 2025

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