Intern spotlight
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Alyn Martinez
Department of Communication lecturer Tish Mays, who is the CEO of aMAYSing Kids, was looking for interns in her classes and instrumental in guiding Alyn, helping her network with professionals and navigate the internship. “Getting to meet students across schools has been a learning experience,” Alyn says interacting with students, during and after their school hours, is gratifying. She is happy to teach them and "give back her time and knowledge" to TPS schools. She definitely recommends the internship journey for students, “Internships gives you a variety of experiences to test what you like and don’t so you don’t have to make those choices when you are in an actual career.” She also advises students to start thinking about what they want their career path to be and to apply ahead. “It is never too early to start looking for an internship, networking and getting experiences. As a college student, you have the advantage of being able to reach out to a variety of employers and ask if any positions are available or simply, “Can I shadow?” |
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Autumn Vasquez
Autumn’s aspirations to become a travel writer saw her pursue and land an internship opportunity with the Toledo City Paper. In the beginning of her journalistic journey, as an intern, she wrote blurbs for articles and later started pitching her own stories with a focus on human-interest and the community. New Mural Sheds Light on East Toledo is the story she first pitched. Her articles appear both in the print and online versions of the paper and she recollects how great it felt to see her name as a byline in the paper. As she navigated the writing world, she is grateful for the warm reception she got at the paper, “Everything was new, but everyone was really welcoming, helpful and nice.” Autumn learnt about this internship through the Department of Communication. “As soon as I saw they were hiring interns, I sent in my resume right away.” She has seen the department expose students to a lot of different internship opportunities and help them find suitable positions no matter what field or interest. She adds that the faculty, staff and advisors within the department have been “super helpful and really supportive, sharing my articles within the department and giving me ideas for news stories. They really uplift me.” “Very valuable!” she comments on internship opportunities in general. “It is the first opportunity that puts you in a real-world environment where you work closely with professionals in your field of interest. It has exposed me to different positions within the field and helped me become more interactive not only with the people around me but also the city. I learn about new cultures, places and little odds and ends of Toledo I didn’t know before and wouldn’t have if not for this opportunity. Getting into [the] news writing field is going to help me have more credibility when I go into the career I want to.” Her internship has turned into a full-time position. Now, a contributing writer for the publication, she writes many more in-depth articles not only for the City Paper but also for the various publications of the parent Adam Street Publishing Company including Toledo Area Parent, Ann Arbor Family, Ann Arbor Current, Findlay Family and Mature Living, among others. She has a portfolio boasting of 34 publications currently. |
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Gabrielle Coon
She pursued this internship based on encouragement from communication department faculty and by connecting with a hiring manager at a department alumni event. “Overall, I love our department – there are so many great professors, advisors and resources that’s really helping me grow to my full potential.” Course work and assignments completed in various classes have helped contribute to her robust portfolio, which along with “lots and lots of networking” landed her the internship. Apart from helping build her resume, the internship has taught her more about the industry, “You think you know the industry but you learn [a lot of new things] when you get into an internship.” Her activities including working with other people, conducting interviews, setting up timelines and managing projects have been rewarding. Skills learnt in communication classes have come in handy with all of those tasks. She emphasizes the value of an internship. “It is more than just putting it on your resume. It is an experience you might not know you need but you definitely do!” |
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Gannon Gdula
Gannon obtained not one but two internships. One of those saw him working in sales and marketing at Sherwin Williams. Based in a Cleveland branch location, he worked with contractors as well as homeowners to address their needs. While monitoring supply chain fluctuations, he advised contractors to redirect features of their projects. He was also part of a group that drew up a strategic plan with goals of increasing residential repaint increases and bringing in more customers and revenue. Apart from sales and marketing, he also worked on HR and communication aspects of the business. Gannon is thankful to the advising he received from the department of communication. He says his experience has been “amazing throughout the whole process” – he was not only informed of the internship opportunity but also guided well as he pondered over the best fit suitable for what he wanted to pursue in his future career. He believes internships are a great way to learn early what kind of work one likes and does not and urges students to pursue them, “Get your foot in the door and get some real-world experience.” He says having internships has helped him get his resume ready to be able to apply for jobs right after graduation. He advises students to “leave the door open” after the internship and keep the connection if they want to work for company after the internship. |
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Nick Lang
He credits the Department of Communication for apprising him of the internship opportunity and helping him gain it. Hockey has always been his passion and public speaking, his forte. This internship in sports commentary has helped bring together his talents and interests. He stresses on the value of an internship in preparing for a future career as it gives immense experience in the chosen field. "This is exactly what I want to do for a future career; having the opportunity to intern now will help me do this on a larger scale." He encourages students to make the time commitment and utilize internship opportunities while in school. "Be ready to work hard, people will help you, take initiative and show that you want to be there rather than you need to be there." |
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Ryan Jewell has been working as an intern with the corporate communication team at Dana Incorporated since early 2022. He is engaged in a variety of internal and external communication tasks such as writing press releases, conducting research, and editing different documents and news stories that reach their global audience. He also works with the marketing team during event planning and was involved with customer and investor relations during the Dana Open. Ryan says the classes he took at the department of communication helped him procure and navigate the internship. He stresses the value of writing well and believes that skill was instrumental in helping him gain the internship. The experience of working with class projects with groups of students and taking online classes has taught him task and schedule management skills. A variety of communication classes he has taken has helped him understand the different aspects and styles of communication. Ryan believes an internship is valuable in preparing for a future career. For him, it has been a “pretty good eye opener” to the corporate communication world. The position has given him experience working with experts in the field, who help critique and coach him. Working with engineers, executives, customers and investors, he has spoken to people in 10 countries and counting, conducting research and writing different PR communication stories. He would “absolutely recommend” an internship to students as it gives a plethora of experience helping prepare better for the real world. |
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Will Turner has been interning with the UT Athletics Marketing & Fan Experience since 2022. As part of his duties, he takes photos and videos of various games as well as creates content for social media platforms. Will procured this internship by networking on Instagram during his first year at the University of Toledo. He was impressed by how open and welcoming people were as they met with and interviewed him for the position. Video production is exactly what he wants to do in his career, so he is happy to be getting a lot of training in that area and expanding his skills. Apart from providing an understanding of the field and helping build a portfolio, he believes that utilizing an internship opportunity can help students establish connections, build confidence, and give them the experience to be more comfortable in a professional setting in the real world. You can see some of his work here: https://www.instagram.com/utrockets/ https://www.instagram.com/toledombb/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CpptAU2NVKi/ |
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Ysabel Duran
Ysabel began her internship at Libbey as a Marketing Trends Analyst, where she assessed trends in their wares and made presentations to their sales team internally to advise them with product development. She is currently in the Channel Marketing department, where she provides updates on annual reporting data and promotions, presents information to their executive and sales teams and coordinates with various distributors, helping garner necessary assets for tradeshows. She reports that the internship is a great experience in learning about different parts of the company, “I like it that I get to have different hands in different places – sales, marketing, pricing – and get to interact with a lot of new faces.” Ysabel notes that the Department of Communication is instrumental in her career, “I have not found a support system like the communication department here in Toledo.” She maintains connections she has formed in her various classes and reaches out to them to network. Overall, her experience here has helped her become more confident as she explores various career opportunities. An internship is extremely valuable, she says. “You get to know the company in real time and learn how business is conducted internally and externally.” It can be especially useful if students plan to pursue full-time positions with the same company as “you have a leg up, because you know the company, [its] internal systems, contacts and people in our corner.” She states most organizations are understanding that interns are full-time students and usually work with class schedules helping them balance school and work. “I definitely recommend internships, a 100 percent.” |
Gabrielle is a social media and videos intern for the 
Nick’s internship with the 
