The Perfect Pair; Q&A with SCAPE’s Intern

SCAPE was very fortunate to have an intern this summer through the La Plata Economic Alliance Internship Fund. Not only were we lucky to have Kyler Harbison support our programming, but he also worked with two SCAPE graduate companies, the perfect pair! The value interns bring to startups and non-profits is a given, but there’s a special full circle thing that really gets us excited — keeping the next generation connected to the idea of entrepreneurship in our communities. Meet Kyler in this Q&A and learn more about why we loved having him and why you should consider working with an intern as well!

Big thanks to Heather Otter at SCAPE and the La Plata County Economic Development Alliance for making it all possible.

Q: Let's start with you — what's your background, and what brought you to Durango this summer?
A: Durango is my home. In fact, I am a 5th generation Durango local! If you are familiar with the Lemon, Bodo, Compton, or Harbison families, I am proud to say that is my lineage. I grew up in Durango at St. Columba Middle School and graduated from Durango High School in the class of 2025. Last fall I moved away from home for college, but I came back home this summer to spend time with family and friends, enjoy the outdoors, and explore career options!

Q: Where do you go to school, and what are you studying?
A: I am now a Sophomore at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem North Carolina! I am an intended Business Enterprise Management major, and I am loving my school despite it being so far from home. Go Deacs!!

Q: You did three internships this summer — Farm To Summit, EsoTerra, and SCAPE. How did that all come together?
A: A guest speaker in my Entrepreneurship 105 class gave some advice that really resonated with me: “You will never learn about business more than you will working for a startup.” I latched onto this idea of working for a developing business, and I was in the process researching options when I came across SCAPE. My dad – Meade Harbison – made the connection with Heather Otter. With Heather I attended a La Plata Economic Development Alliance meeting and got connected with Sara Tober. With Heather connecting me to the companies and the Alliance funding the work, it all came together better than I could have imagined!

Q: Your internships came with a wide variety of work. What's a project from each internship that you're most proud of?
A: At Farm To Summit, I taught myself all about the changing world of Search Engine Optimization and integration into AI. This culminated in the creation of an SOP for Farm To Summit that details a bi-annual procedure that anyone can do, no coding experience necessary. This procedure was designed to keep their Shopify E-commerce up to date with the industry standard for Search Engine Optimization. 

At EsoTerra I was tasked with doing market research to deliver insights on how EsoTerra should position their brand for success. I went about this by pursuing interview meetings with 13 local business owners or managers. I spoke with leadership from Ska Brewing, Wagon Wheel Liquor, Steamworks, and ten other companies. There is nothing more valuable than getting insight from experienced locals who understand the consumer better than anyone. These interviews culminated in a presentation of all the qualitative data I had collected and a list of high impact action items for EsoTerra. 

Q: What would the business owners say about the impact you had?
"We’re incredibly grateful for the Economic Development Alliance internship program. They made the entire process simple and accessible, allowing us to work with Kyler on a project that otherwise wouldn’t have happened. It gave him the chance to build new skills and gain real-world experience, while helping Farm To Summit along the way! Kyler was great to work with and we are excited to see where his interests land him!"  - Lou Barton (Farm to Summit)

“I am so thankful for the La Plata Economic Development Alliance's Internship Fund because we were able to host Kyler Harbison who was an exceptional intern! We worked with his interests where he independently created and executed a market research project. The information he gathered during the short time was extremely helpful for our businesses and will be for the next upcoming years! Thank you, La Plata Economics Development Alliance and thank you , Kyler, for your hard work!” - Jared Scott (EsoTerra) 

Q: Was there a moment this summer where you felt like your work actually moved the needle for one of these businesses?
A: It might just be me, but it was exhilarating to edit the backend code of a live e-commerce website and actually see my edits make Farm To Summit appear on ChatGPT and Google AI Overview searches!

Q: What's a skill you came into this summer with, and what's one you built from scratch?
A: I started this summer coming home from an elite institution: Wake Forest University. This prepared me with developed organizational skills and learning skills. I am adept at combining paper notes, the Chrome digital ecosystem, and numerous AI tools. This means I am a quick learner and I am great at working efficiently. This definitely served me well this summer, but there's no doubt I had to develop lots of new skills. One of the most notable is meeting confidence. Before this summer, I don't think I had ever held a meeting with a CEO or business owner. Now I have double digits of experience and I have noticed my meeting confidence rising drastically throughout the summer. 

Q: Now let's talk about SCAPE. What drew you to the SCAPE internship?
A: There are two reasons I feel really lucky to get the opportunity to work with SCAPE. The first is that I really believe in what they are doing! I believe that new business development is integral to societal development, and I believe that developing a more saturated business landscape in Durango will make it more attractive and draw more young professionals to my beautiful hometown. The second is that working for a business incubator gives me an inside look into a wide variety of concepts that are directly applicable to the education I am receiving at Wake Forest. 

Q: Looking back, what would you tell another student considering an internship with SCAPE or one of its partner businesses?
A: I would say GO FOR IT! Working with SCAPE has been an incredible crash course in the business development process! And working with two growth stage businesses has given me an amazing breadth of experience I can use to define my path moving forward. The most important thing I would tell another student would be to connect with the La Plata Economic Development Alliance. Their internship reimbursement scholarship was exactly what I needed to bridge the cost gap and make a perfect and mutually beneficial relationship with the owners at Farm To Summit and EsoTerra.