Insta-Story: A Millennial’s Unique Internship

Intern: Kelly Arnold, ’19

Major: Communications, Digital Marketing focus

Location: Hope College Public Affairs and Marketing

Kelly Arnold is a passionate learner and lover of all things media. Two summers ago, Kelly interned with the University of Michigan’s social media team, and this past summer she worked as a social media assistant for Hope’s Public Affairs and Marketing.

In 2016, her time at the University of Michigan was formative: She was able to work alongside the best in higher education social media and learn hands-on digital marketing and social media strategies. She took initiative and led projects, wrote best-practice blog posts, and conducted a data report looking at the over 1,000 social media accounts connected to the university.

She had another fantastic experience in the summer of 2017 as well, right here at Hope College. Her responsibilities included planning and executing Instagram/Snapchat stories and writing about social media best practices for the department’s blog. In addition, she was advising different departments around campus on digital strategy, and so much more!

Hope College’s Instagram stories are fairly recent additions, thanks to Kelly’s hard work. She was actually the woman behind the magic in implementing that social media feature this past summer. She said:

“During my time this summer, we were able to begin crafting a brand voice on Instagram and creating content that has worked to reach our students in a more specialized manner.”

This was such a positive, hands-on experience. Now hundreds of students tune in to those stories to find out the latest scoop on Hope College.

Beyond that, Kelly noted that she was pleasantly surprised at how open and encouraging the full-time professionals were towards her ideas and work. Her workplace environment was inclusive and fostered creative collaboration within the office. She was able to flourish in her brainstorming and project execution, because of this.

Kelly has some fantastic advice for anyone entering an internship in the future:

“You may discover you do not really enjoy completing your main project, or you might not agree with your supervisor some days. However, this is okay and actually quite reflective of the real world. Internships are your opportunity to not only build your resume but learn so much more about your own workplace strengths and preferences.” 

Whether you have dozens of work experiences, or are just starting to discover the options out there, pursuing an internship is a fantastic decision. Like Kelly, you have the opportunity to explore your field of interest and cultivate your strengths in the working world. Head to Hope’s job search platform, Handshake, to see what might be a great fit for you next spring or summer.

Come visit Kelly and our awesome team of student Career Advisors in the Career Development Center!

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