It is one thing to learn about marketing in classes and a completely different thing to actively apply what you learn into skills and abilities that will pertain to your career. This was the main reason I was seeking an internship for the summer before my senior year. When I came upon Embark Marketing and read through some of the previous intern’s experiences I was very intrigued. On my very first day I knew right away that this was exactly what I had been hoping for.

Meeting Kim and having her give me a run-down of what my day-to-day tasks were and seeing her be so patient while explaining, made me sure that this was the place for me. Getting comfortable with all of the essential platforms such as Hootsuite, Word Press and writing blogs soon became second nature to me. Of course, this was only after a few mistakes and calling on Kim to help me fix them quickly.

Our out of the office adventures were also some of my favorite days. I was able to watch the filming of SA Live which was awesome! Kim introduced us to the producers and some of the crew and we were treated like VIPs with special looks behind the scenes of filming. If that wasn’t cool enough, we were able to sample some amazing food that they were using for their filming segments. I’m telling you, VIPs!

Now, as much as I love writing, developing copy for content was second nature to me. However. media was something I was not experienced at all before this summer. Kim again, took time to give me a one-on-one tutorial with Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, iMovie and Adobe Premier. I was able to make all the media I wanted to. We were able to attend photoshoots and see firsthand what food and beverage media was like. I even tried my hand at photographing cuisine!

If everything I had learned in a short month was not yet apparent to me, midway through my internship I was taking a break to participate in an International Immersion through my school, UTSA. I traveled to Italy to participate in an accelerated business start-up competition. I was our designated marketing specialist and knew exactly what to do right away. I created our social media accounts and directly applied everything I had learned the month before with Kim to our competition. I had so much fun developing content for our idea and branding our company was amazingly easy for me. My teammates were so impressed at everything I knew how to do and how quickly it came to me.  We even ended up making it to the second round of competition with ease.

At the center of my learning experience was Kim who is one of the most amazing women I know. I’ve learned way more than I could have imagined from all of her guidance and simply observing how she deals with daily obstacles that can come up. She is truly an entrepreneur that I look up to and a friend that is so humble and willing to share experiences with. I know that even when my internship is over I can go to her for help with anything.

For anyone who is looking to turn lessons into skills, this is the internship for you.I know that there were many interns before me and that there will be many after me, but I cherish my individual learning experience that I have had working with Kim this crazy summer.