Read about the summer internship of our Vice President, Katie O’Hara, and her amazing experiences with Youth Marketing Connection in Boston, MA!

By: Katie O’Hara

This summer, I worked as a Marketing and Program Strategy Intern at Youth Marketing Connection in Boston. YMC is a millennial marketing agency that connects brands with college students, with clients ranging from adidas to Bud Light to Jessica Simpson. I specifically worked on the Student Brand Ambassador Program for Express, a fashion retail brand.

My daily responsibilities included conducting lead generation research and reaching out to potential candidates via email, LinkedIn, and Instagram. I also reviewed applications, phone-interviewed candidates, and created candidate bios for review by the Express team. These tasks required persistence and strict attention to detail. In addition to my major responsibilities, I wrote blog posts about current fashion PR controversies, such as the racy Calvin Klein ad campaign and the plagiarizing accusation against Zara. The most challenging part of the internship was devising original, on-brand ideas for Express campus events during our brainstorming sessions.

Lastly, I designed and executed a brand pitch presentation for S’well bottles, which I presented to my team in Boston, as well as the team in the DC office during a conference call. My project received great feedback and the Director in the DC office even asked me to find S’well marketing contacts so they could try to make my idea a reality. By the end, everyone in the office wanted a S’well bottle. S’well is a brand that I truly believe in, because it combines style with sustainability and philanthropy (plus, it’s woman-owned!). I was thrilled that YMC wanted to partner with them after listening to my pitch!

Overall, my first in-office internship experience was a success. The most valuable things I took away were definitely the great relationships I formed with each coworker. They have a small team, so they all took the time to really get to know me and help me benefit from the experience. I felt like I was contributing in a substantial way, and I never even went on a single coffee run. I am so fortunate to be able to say I genuinely connected with my coworkers and truly enjoyed working at Youth Marketing Connection.