Pioneers’ Liddicoat returns to hometown for internship with Rural Route 1 Popcorn

Platteville, Wis.- Sophomore Olivia "Liv" Liddicoat, of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville women's basketball program, has had an interesting two years on campus. Her first season was shortened to eight regular season games due to COVID-19, and her sophomore season was cut short due to a knee injury. The business administration major from Rewey, Wisconsin, kept her focus on school and is now completing a summer internship with Rural Route 1 Popcorn near her hometown.

Growing up 25 minutes from UW-Platteville, Liddicoat felt she would go elsewhere after her prep career at Iowa-Grant High School. "UW-Platteville never was my first choice," she said. "It was so close – 25 minutes away. I wasn't going 25 minutes away from home."

When she began looking for a place to continue her basketball and educational career, she took a visit and her feelings changed about attending UW-Platteville, and she later committed as a member of Head Coach Kelly McNiff's first full recruiting class.

"It's probably my best decision yet," Liddicoat said. "I love the team, the coaches, they really helped me during the recruitment. I met some of the women on the team and I felt at home."

It felt like home so much, Liddicoat doesn't travel back to her hometown 25 minutes away very often during the school year.

"The campus is so welcoming, and there is so much to do with your teammates, it wasn't only about basketball," she said. 

For the summer, Liddicoat will spend a lot of her time in her hometown as she gets a hands-on experience at Rural Route 1 Popcorn in nearby Livingston, Wisconsin – an experience that she hopes will help decide which direction she wants to go with her business major.

Liddicoat was undecided about her major and career goals, but growing up around a family business, something in the field of business made sense to her. 

"Being around a family business that is successful and seeing all the ins and outs behind that, I wanted to get a better background in college and see how everything plays out and all the reasoning behind the decisions that are made to make a business run successfully," she said.

With her internship, she is working with another successful local business and learning the ins and outs of operations at Rural Route 1 Popcorn. Like sports, in business not everything goes as planned.

"When I started my internship, I asked Brian (Arndt) what a day would be like," Liddicoat said. "His response was simple, 'I really can't tell you what your day-to-day will be like, it will be different.' After the first three weeks, I have realized that." 

Arndt and Rural Route 1 Popcorn tried to keep the first two weeks of Liddicoat's internship as structured as possible.

"We let her know that any day is subject to change in terms of projects and priorities," Senior Account Manager and Liddicoat's supervisor Brian Arndt said.  "As we move through her internship, Olivia will take on various projects assigned by various people in our organization. She will get projects from the marketing department to our president."

The variation and opportunity to work in multiple areas within the business was exactly what Liddicoat had in mind with the internship. 

"My whole idea with this internship is to get an overall view of all the areas within a business," she said. "There are so many, and I just wanted to get a better background."

Liddicoat's time with the Pioneer women's basketball team has taught her how to balance her workload, manage her time and work as a team to accomplish tasks – all traits to which Arndt credits her early success at her internship.

"Olivia shows remarkable knowledge in a variety of areas that have allowed her to catch on quickly to the day-to-day operations," he said. "Her desire to learn and contribute will serve her well in whatever she decides to do with her degree. Her ability to work on a team is key to the success of our company and her internship. Olivia's ability to communicate articulately, meet all assigned tasks head on and self-manage her time is a testament to her upbringing, college education and team involvement."

Liddicoat credits her early success to lists. "I am a list person," she said. "I make a list, get it done and check it off. I feel like managing my time within and how much time I have to get something done is something that transferred from being on the basketball team to help me in this internship."

Liddicoat hasn't looked too far into her future, as she is rehabbing her knee and getting ready for the upcoming season. She may not know what her dream job is yet, but she knows the type of company she wants to work for.

"I don't know what my dream job is," she said. "I know I want to work for a successful organization that has a lot of people that are passionate about what they do in that organization."