Love’s paves early career pathways for interns

On National Intern Day, Love’s celebrates the energy, fresh perspectives and innovative ideas its nationwide interns have brought to the company.

This summer, Love’s hosted 104 interns from 43 universities working in 17 different states. These interns have gained vast knowledge and hands-on experience during a big milestone year as Love’s continues to celebrate its 60th anniversary.

Love’s is more than the travel stops and c-stores it’s known for, and interns receive a wide variety of experience across the business.

“Each year our interns play a special role in learning from our team members while gaining real-world experience by bringing their innovative ideas and work ethic to the table as active contributors,” said Stephanie Shellabarger, Love’s supervisor of university recruiting. “It has been incredible to witness the growth of our intern programs as we strive to set interns up for success in their careers. We’re thankful for them sharing their talents and their summer with us.”

Interns in Oklahoma City, at Love’s corporate headquarters, have gained experience in several business areas, such as merchandising planning, fuel quality, culture and inclusion and diversity, customer loyalty strategy, and more.

“Even though you learn in school, applying it to a real-life setting is completely different,” said Vi Banh, a Love’s benefits and compensation intern. “I have been able to do a lot of shadowing with different departments outside of benefits and within the HR realm. I've been able to learn a lot about how it's all connected and where I want to go in my career.”

“I think Love’s is an amazing place to kick start your career,” said Eugenia Edwin Galan, a Love’s corporate IT intern. “On top of the corporate responsibilities you get on the technical side, you also get exposure to networking events, volunteering activities and a lot of different things that help you build lifelong friendships as well.”

Love’s 2024 interns were able to attend networking events, including the company’s 60th anniversary employee appreciation celebration on campus.

In addition, they had the opportunity to interact with company executives through town halls and volunteer with the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma.

“My favorite event so far has been our volunteer event at the food bank,” said Tristan Schwartz, a Love’s data engineering intern. “It was really rewarding to help out the community and we could really see the impact that we made.”

Love’s internship program goes far beyond its corporate headquarters in Oklahoma City. Musket and Trillium Energy interns in Houston, have spent the summer learning about fuel trading and alternative fuels, including electric vehicle charging, while also giving back by volunteering at the local Boys and Girls Club.

Love’s retail management interns have gained boots-on-the ground experience from their managers and teams, learning about customer service and running a store, while exemplifying the culture and values of Love’s.

Across all campuses and locations, interns were an invaluable part of Love’s award-winning culture.

“Love’s culture is authentic," Banh said. “With every person I meet or every event that I go to, the culture really shines through. I feel like it's kind of hard to find a company that invests so much time and resources into developing their employees to take care of the customer.”

“Love's culture is kind of like our promise to customers, ‘Clean Places, Friendly Faces,” Schwartz said. “People are really nice everywhere - and it's not like, oh, this is the interns, make sure you're nice to them. It’s people who don't know you're an intern. Everyone is super kind and willing to help you. I would definitely recommend applying.”

As Love’s continues to innovate and grow for the next six decades, the summer interns across the country have played a role in helping drive the business to the future through new ideas, high energy and a hunger to learn. In return, they have gained real world business experience in a fast-paced environment to fuel their career on the road ahead.