We asked Alumni: What was the value of the internships you completed?
Here is what they shared:
- Internships Enhance Classroom Knowledge
- They Help You discover Career Paths
- Even Unpaid Internships Provide Valuable Experience
- Internships Build Confidence
Internships Enhance Classroom Knowledge
Internships provide our students with the opportunity to build on the foundational knowledge they receive in the classroom and create a framework of real-world experiences that make them more attractive to future employers. They also help the student gain a better understanding of the various pathways they can travel as they begin or continue their career journey. For employers, the benefits include greater access to talent and the ability to begin training future employees earlier in the process.
Joan Koerber-Walker, W.P. Carey Executive MBA ‘00, President & CEO, Arizona Bioindustry Association (AZBio)
They Help You Discover Career Paths
Internships are the best way to dive into your field and learn what you want or don’t want to do with your career. As an intern, I discovered I wanted to shift my career focus from journalism to marketing across a range of experiences (including working for a small-town newspaper, writing for a magazine, and curating social media profiles at both the agency and corporation levels). I got the chance to attend meetings, meet with executives, and broaden my network of fellow interns to experience what it would be like in the full-time working world in the field I wanted to pursue. My internship experience wasn’t 100% journalism-related, but I realized I could apply what I was learning to different fields, such as marketing, and my internships helped build my resume to create a well-rounded foundation for my career path.
Emily Lierle, B.A. Journalism & Mass Communication ‘16, Content Specialist
Even Unpaid Internships Provide Valuable Experience
ASU gave me countless opportunities to interview and intern with highly reputable organizations across Arizona. Though students find paid opportunities to be more appealing, I pursued unpaid ones at the beginning of my career, as I found those to be more valuable in terms of experience. My very first (unpaid) internship was at Evolve PR and Marketing, where I worked for two semesters. If it hadn’t been for my time there, I wouldn’t have learned how to build social media strategies or even collaborate with a diverse range of clients. I felt that I was also given room to make a more significant impact and to make the role I had there special. I took many of the skills I learned from my time at Evolve and used them in my various roles doing content strategy for CapCut, Amazon, and Meta (where I work now).
Mareena Emran, B.A. Journalism & Mass Communication ‘22, Digital Content Specialist
Internships Build Confidence
My internships played an essential role in growing my confidence as a public relations and communications professional. While my professors at ASU provided me with the hard skills to be competitive in my field, my internships gave me those soft skills that made me stand out as each year passed. I knew how to conduct some intense PR research and put together a thoughtful pitch in a timely manner, thanks to classes at ASU. However, my first internship at KB Woods gave me the space to work with actual companies and media members and secure those first wins—and my first fail.
Those experiences showed me I knew what I was doing and that I could learn and improve my work to be even better. From there, I interned at OXO in NYC for the summer and grew under some of the most incredible people! When I came back from NYC to finish my master’s program, I was able to take all of these undergraduate internship experiences and apply them to an internship with the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee. I am the professional I am today because of every single one of my internships.
Haley Spracale, B.A. ’22/M.C.C. ’23, Community Manager, Featured
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