Kasey Helt | Director of DTC Operations - Laetitia Vineyards and Winery
I started in this industry as a vineyard intern.
As a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo graduate with a little confidence and a lot to prove, I worked my way from the vines to the cellar, progressing from assistant winemaker to general manager and eventually to my current role as Director of Sales and DTC Operations. Having spent the better part of two decades in the wine world, I know exactly what it feels like to show up at a major event and wonder whether you belong. When our first cohort of college interns walked through the doors of the DTC Wine Symposium last year, I watched them closely.
When we launched the DTC Wine Symposium Internship Program, we made three promises to the students: they would build real connections, learn the industry, and have fun doing it. What we received in return was something none of us fully anticipated.
Five young leaders arrived ready to work and eager to tackle any task. They jumped in without hesitation, without complaint, and without needing to be asked twice. Somewhere between the registration tables, the session rooms, and the behind-the-scenes chaos attendees never see, a shift occurred. These students stopped being "the interns" and became one of the most valuable parts of the entire operation. That first cohort set an incredibly high bar, and we are still talking about their impact today.
The DTC wine community shares a favorite vocabulary: collaboration, community, authenticity, and relationships. We build programming around these concepts, feature them on tasting room walls, and write them into our mission statements. However, saying it and living it are two different things. This internship program forces us to live them.
When you bring a 21-year-old into the middle of a professional industry event and give them real responsibility—not busywork or coffee runs, but real stakes—you are making a choice about the kind of industry you want to be. You are deciding whether the values you sell to wine club members are the same ones you extend to the next generation as they find their footing. Our interns proved that the answer should always be yes.
I often think about where my career would be without the people who took a chance on me early on—the winemaker who let me ask endless questions and the winery owner who put me in rooms I wasn’t quite ready for. Those moments didn’t just teach me about the industry; they connected me to it and gave me a reason to stay.
That is exactly what this program does. For a college student eyeing a career in wine, the relationships formed during those few days at the Symposium are the first threads of a professional network they will build on for the rest of their career. They meet DTC directors, tasting room managers, marketers, club managers, and compliance specialists—the people who keep the entire machine running.
For those of us already established in the industry, we get a first look at our future colleagues—the ones who will run the tasting rooms, manage the clubs, and build the brands we work so hard to grow. We would be foolish not to invest in them now.
The 2027 DTC Wine Symposium will delve deeper into culture: how it is built, sustained, and leveraged to drive real sales results. The internship program isn’t a footnote to that conversation; it is the conversation. If we believe the wine industry succeeds when we lean on each other, stay creative, and build real teams, we have an obligation to extend that culture to the students eager to join us.
Sometimes, when you’re paying attention, you find exactly who you’ve been looking for. In less than two weeks, one of last year’s interns will join me at Laetitia Vineyard & Winery as our new Tasting Room Lead. That’s not a coincidence—that’s the program working exactly as intended.
This year at the 2027 DTC Wine Symposium, we will welcome back one returning intern and four new students ready to make their mark. That returning intern proves the program delivers on its promises. As for those four new faces? They have no idea how much this experience is about to transform their careers. As current industry leaders, let’s welcome them with open arms and celebrate the future of our industry!
We are accepting internship applications for the 2027 DTC Wine Symposium. Please email kasey@laetitiawine.com.