{"id":14015,"date":"2023-08-01T01:20:42","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T08:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/?p=14015"},"modified":"2026-02-19T16:48:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T00:48:51","slug":"carter-wiggins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/2023\/08\/01\/carter-wiggins\/","title":{"rendered":"Internship Launches Carter Marks Wiggins\u2019s Wine Career"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Boyd
Boyd Family Vineyards owner Stan Boyd and Carter (Marks) Wiggins pose for a photo in front of a row of grape vines.
(Courtesy photos)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
\n
\"Carter<\/a>
Carter (Marks) Wiggins<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Growing up in Warden, Washington, Carter (Marks) Wiggins<\/a> was exposed to small town values and gained an appreciation for the preservation of historical, cultural, and natural heritage of a farming community. In her heart, she knew she wanted to explore a career in agriculture as she approached her final years of high school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She found the right fit after visiting WSU and meeting Dennis Reynolds, the former director of the School of Hospitality Business Management<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe saw my potential and passion for the wine industry, and I was sold on WSU at that point,\u201d says Wiggins (\u201915 Wine Busi. Mgmt.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wiggins, a PAC-12 athlete on the WSU women\u2019s rowing team, thrived in the Carson College of Business\u2019s wine business management program, which was later renamed as the wine and beverage business management program. Toward the end of her junior year, Reynolds told her about an internship in Napa Valley with Boyd Family Vineyards<\/a>, a small operation owned by Stan Boyd<\/a> (\u201977 H&RA). The vineyard produces ultra-premium wine grapes used in Boyd wines and in many of Napa Valley\u2019s most sought-after wines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple weeks after the 2014 school year ended, Wiggins completed her rowing season at the NCAA Championship in Indianapolis and made the drive to Napa to begin her summer internship\u2014a decision that launched her career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Internship leads to permanent career offer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

During her internship, Wiggins learned something new every day. Her duties ranged from working in the winery and experiencing the bottling process to sitting in on tastings and meeting loyal club members and new guests. She also packed and shipped wine to customers around the world and spent time in the vineyard learning about different growing and harvest practices. When not working at the winery, she toured Napa Valley and participated in wine tasting and restaurant experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a college junior preparing to go into the workforce, I enjoyed being able to experience all aspects of the business during my internship,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Wiggins graduated from WSU, she worked less than a year as an assistant tasting room and office manager in Walla Walla before Boyd offered her a management position in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you meet Carter, you know right away she’s special,\u201d Boyd says. \u201cAfter spending a short time with her, you see she is all heart and possesses a unique brand of determination that has allowed her to succeed in all she does. Such a rare find\u2014thank you WSU!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wiggins moved to Napa to become the vineyard\u2019s first employee\u2014and Boyd\u2019s \u201cright hand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWorking for a small, family-owned winery has many benefits. One of my favorite things about my job is sharing my passion for wine with people from all walks of life. At the vineyard, we don\u2019t sell any of our wines through distribution,\u201d Wiggins says. \u201cWe virtually meet every single customer that buys our wine. It\u2019s a wonderful thing, because months or years after I have met customers during tastings, I\u2019ll talk to or see them again, and we know each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business skills help innovate vineyard\u2019s customer reach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Much like her internship, every day is unique when it comes to Wiggins\u2019s role as the vineyard\u2019s hospitality and wine club manager. She still helps out in the vineyard by sampling grapes, and she ships wine and conducts tastings. She also manages more of the business side, including compliance, state taxes, processing orders, label approvals, marketing, and reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wiggins says she\u2019s applied leadership, problem solving, and business operations knowledge from her undergraduate program to increase yearly growth within the company\u2019s wine following and wine club comprised of about 1,000 members. She\u2019s also helped implement a texting service to improve reach to subscribers and club members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back at her career path, Wiggins encourages college seniors to \u201ctake an internship out of your comfort zone to learn as much as you can, because it can have the potential to be your dream job.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The summer after her junior year, alumna Carter Marks Wiggins began an internship in Napa Valley with Boyd Family Vineyards, a small, family-owned operation owned by alumnus Stan Boyd. Every day, she learned something new\u2014from working in the winery and experiencing the bottling process\u2014to sitting in on tastings and meeting loyal club members and new guests. The experience launched her career as the wine and hospitality club manager at Boyd Family Vineyards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":[628],"featured_media":18210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[429,614,425],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14015"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/628"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14015"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18814,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14015\/revisions\/18814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14015"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/author?post=14015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}