Aaron Ossino is in the middle of career renaissance. The University of Nebraska-Omaha psychology student is preparing to continue his studies in graduate school upon finishing his degree, crediting his Lozier internship experience with preparing him for the future.
“My internship is really helpful for preparing me for graduate school to study the field,” Ossino said. “It just gives me an understanding of how the things I’m studying actually get used and implemented in the real world with real people.”
Those real people are made up of two different demographics: office workers and production professionals in the plants. Ossino said he appreciates the collaboration between the facilities, saying it enriches his unique work experience.
“I think the physical nature of manufacturing, with the office component to it, is unique to Lozier versus other companies,” Ossino said. “It’s been a cool collaboration working together with two different kinds of fields in two different industries within one company.”
Before heading back to school, Ossino was a hairdresser, but he hasn’t set down his shears and clippers for good. He uses his free time to volunteer, giving haircuts and trims to people in hospice.
“I would like to be the most compassionate and loving person anyone has ever met,” Ossino said. “The patient visits and haircuts keep me grounded and trying to be a compassionate and kind person to everyone and just being loving to everyone.” Ossino has volunteered in hospice care for around six years.
“Plenty of patients that you can have conversations with express how thankful they are,” Ossino said. “Everyone loves to have a haircut, everyone feels good after a fresh haircut, when your appearance feels good, you look good and feel good. The visits are a really great way for me to just connect with what’s important in life.”
Along with being compassionate, Ossino is confident and likes to challenge stereotypes to get people to see him and others differently.
“I’m a very unique person, and just how I see the world and having tattoos for me is just a way to kind of express my internal state,” Ossino said. “They are a conversation starter, maybe it challenges their perceptions of people with tattoos. A larger reason is kind of like representation and to kind of show people like, you know, there’s all different kinds of people out there; tattoos doesn’t necessarily mean what they used to.”
What’s next for Aaron Ossino?
“The internship program has been a good balance of a lot of fun and very focused work, efficiently working together,” Ossino said. “There have been a lot of fun activities that have bought interns together from all different departments. For the next few years I’ll be in Omaha finishing school, so I’d like to be involved in the industry still and doing similar work to what I’m doing now.”
Lozier’s collegiate educational operation has been nominated for consideration as one of the Top 100 Internship Programs, according to the National Intern Day program. You can vote for Lozier’s internship program to make the top 100 list through July 20. Note: you can vote multiple times – once every 24 hours.