Former 2020 Digital Summer Clinic Interns Kevin Hillman and Nate Fischel sat down with CDE Field Manager, Marisa Salice, to discuss their internship experience.

When Kevin joined the Digital Summer Clinic in 2020, he had recently graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a degree in Public Relations and was looking for his next opportunity. During Kevin’s time in the Digital Summer Clinic, he worked as a Digital Marketing Specialist for TechStak, a company that acts as a match-making service between IT providers and small businesses. Kevin spent his internship developing content, most notably an IT Provider Marketing Quiz that helps TechStak provide their service in a new way. “In the end, that marketing quiz is live on the site. It is really rewarding to see your hard work come to fruition and be utilized with the platform.”

Kevin’s favorite part of the Clinic was the encouragement fellow interns were giving each other in the all-hands and cohort meetings. “I’m really privileged to be part of a group of young professionals that want to see everyone learn and succeed.”

As a rising senior in the EMU Computer Science program, Nate was looking for an internship experience in the midst of a pandemic. During Nate’s time in the Digital Summer Clinic, he worked as a Web Development and Data Science Intern for Impellia, a sports analytics company. He spent the majority of his time at Impellia creating a pipeline that connects data collected from athletes to an intuitive dashboard that can be used to gain insight into sports performance. He described this as one of his favorite but most challenging experiences. “It was challenging because in a startup environment, you have to define your own role. My partner and I had to come up with a plan of how the project was going to look without being told. That was really the most challenging part, finding out exactly where we fit in and how to best utilize both of our skills.” 

Nate’s favorite part of the Clinic was the all-hands meetings because he was inspired by hearing professionals in the industry talk about their journey. “They would talk about how at our time in their career they were in the same boat, and that really inspired me not to get discouraged when I’m searching for jobs.” 

Nate’s advice to students who might not be marketing majors, specifically students in more technical programs like himself, is to apply because it is still a great opportunity. “Don’t give up because you feel like you have no idea what’s going on.”

As a student in both the Political Science and Journalism programs at EMU, Marisa was on a pre-law track for most of her undergraduate career. When she discovered a passion for public relations and communications after her junior year, she was scrambling to find an internship in the middle of a statewide shutdown. Eventually, Marisa found her way to the Digital Summer Clinic application through her network of EMU peers. During Marisa’s time in the Digital Summer Clinic, she worked as a Digital Marketing Intern for Genomenon, a genomic health IT company that provides solutions for pharma and bio-pharma companies. She helped improve their Customer Relationship Management system by updating key lists, developing automations, drafting a re-engagement email campaign, updating press contact lists, and drafting a press release. 

Marisa’s piece of advice for future interns is to not worry about your experience level. “It is all about your passion, aspirations, and your willingness to learn. When I applied to the Clinic, I didn’t have a lot of experience, but I had a passion to figure out if the public relations industry was for me.”

Learn more about their experience here.