By Serena Leatherbarrow
From my first interaction with Discover716, I knew this would be an experience like no other. After just one meeting with Damian, the internship supervisor, I had complete confidence that my personality, interests, and abilities would be appreciated and utilized.
What makes the Discover716 internship program unique is that it’s designed around intern’s individual interests. In our first meeting, Damian and I discussed my career goals, classes I was taking, and how we could incorporate my passion for happy & healthy living into my program. After discussing these factors, Damian and I created a plan with projects that were best suited to fit my interests!
Within my first hour of being a Discover716 intern, I developed my own health & wellness branch of the company, Discover716 Balanced Living. That in itself is pretty incredible! With this project, I combined my love for healthy, but balanced living with my hometown appreciation.
On Discover716 Balanced Living, I feature local small businesses who strive to promote health & wellness in the 716 community. I have highlighted everything from mediation groups, massage therapists, healthy restaurants, yoga studios, and so much more!
Throughout the process of working with small business owners, I’ve gained the incredibly valuable experience of interviewing individuals and turning information into stories to share with the public.
One thing that I have especially appreciated is the complete creative control I’ve had over my content. With Discover716, as well as my health & wellness page, I’ve developed several social media campaigns including a "Tuesday Tips" series and the holiday campaign, 12 Days of Balanced Living. Having so much freedom in what I created and taking the lead on many of these projects gave me confidence in my creative abilities that I know will be valuable in my future career.
While creating a new branch of the company was by far my most significant project with Discover716, I gained experience in a wide variety of fields! Whether it was collaborating with other interns on blog posts, learning about email marketing, growing my graphic design abilities, leading giveaways, or mastering my TikTok creations, there are so many new skills I can add to my resumé thanks to Discover716.
Interns at Discover716 truly get the best of both worlds by gaining the ability to make decisions independently on individual projects, but also collaborate with local businesses and other interns for group activities.
Discover716 also offers mentorship opportunities to interns that are excelling in their work! This makes the program unique from other internships as students can pass on the skills they have learned to incoming interns.
If you’re a college student studying the fields of marketing, journalism, graphic design, or the overall administrative activities of running a business, then this is the perfect opportunity! Working to promote businesses within my community while gaining hands on marketing experience has been such an incredibly beneficial experience.