All About the People: Abigail Hopkins ’25’s Executive Internship at Target  

A manager can make or break a job experience. A good manager, with time to invest and a heart for their employees, creates jobs full of learning, grace and relationship-building. Without a manager who truly cares about their employees, a job can feel overwhelming and hard, even if everything else about the role is great. 

Abi Hopkins ’25, a business major with a human resources management concentration, developed her management skills this summer through an executive team lead internship at Target. Though she faced many challenges, like taking on new tasks and managing people older than herself, Hopkins learned firsthand how she can use her Christian faith to make a positive impact on employees and the community.  

Learning to Manage 

Hopkins has always been interested in serving and interacting with others, something she hopes to continue throughout her career. “I'm really interested in helping people reach their full potential,” she says. As her first experience in retail and management, the internship at Target was the perfect opportunity for Hopkins to put her interest into practice. Her executive team internship trained interns for management at Target, or any other executive or managerial roles.  

As an executive intern Hopkins learned to do the job of her mentor, a front-end store executive manager. Her mentor and other executives empowered her by giving her challenging responsibilities, like reviewing schedules and business metrics containing sensitive information. With the support and training Hopkins received from the Target executives, she was able to fully step into a managerial role.  

Hopkins interacted with many Target employees, some who were in high school and others who were adults between jobs. As an executive intern, Hopkins was placed in authority over the front-end managers. “I had tough relationships with the managers because they didn't like that I was telling them what to do. I was just a little 20-year-old coming in as an executive,” she says.  

While she felt awkward in the position at first, Hopkins sought to better her relationships with the managers. One way she inspired respect was by holding confidently to Christian ethics in her professional conduct, such as by setting aside Sundays for church. “I think a lot of people found it easier to respect me because of the way I held myself. I wasn't swearing or gossiping like some of the other managers were,” she says.  

Impact Beyond the Team 

Another way Hopkins was able to love people through her internship was by taking part in Target’s partnerships with small brands like Honey Pot, Harry’s and Native. Hopkins noticed how Target is intentional about relationships with smaller businesses, which creates personal and professional connections between those businesses and the Target managers.  

“We were able to talk to the owners to figure out how we were going to display their stuff in the store or read through how they wanted things to be displayed,” Hopkins says. A good manager can influence people beyond their team for the better, and because of Target’s partnerships Hopkins saw how she could support other businesses outside of her own. 

Hopkins also watched her manager conduct job interviews. By taking part in potential employees’ professional development and giving them feedback on their interviews, Hopkins saw how the management team held influence beyond Target. “It was cool to watch interviews for people who are looking for a job and looking to find a more permanent position,” she says. “By hiring them we could give them a purpose and a job.” 

A Future in Management 

Hopkins’ impact as an intern was so powerful that she was offered a job to work at Target as an executive team leader after she graduates in May 2025. She is excited to continue learning how to love people well as a manager. Now that she knows the impact she can have in HR, she hopes to eventually work in HR for small businesses like the ones she partnered with during her internship. 

Hopkins’ greatest takeaway from her internship was learning how businesses and HR teams can serve not only their customers but employees, via compassionate and caring managers. "I am passionate about HR because I love being able to use the resources I have been given to then go out and be a support and resource for others in the workforce,” she says. “In this setting I truly feel like I am able to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the modern business world.”   

Emily Jones ’24, English language and literature