Meet our Fall 2011 Intern Class
Matthew Dewar
Prior to his internship with VisionPoint Marketing, Matthew was wrapping up his bachelor's degree in professional writing at Appalachian State University and holding down two internships. One involved editing a scholarly journal, while the other was writing web content for an up-and-coming online music source. As social media intern for VisionPoint Marketing, Matthew's been busy working on VisionPoint's higher education clients, helping to improve and increase traffic to social networking sites.
"Already I've learned just how important a tool social media is becoming. Whether it's for education, business or even personal use; social media is much more essential than before,” he says. He's also learned what kind of material users desire from educational sources within social media. Matthew’s immensely enjoying his internship. He feels really challenged, sometimes stretched beyond his capabilities but always learning. "This is by far the most challenging and educational internship experience I've ever had."
Chris Fancart – Web Development Intern
Chris Fancart didn't truly anticipate being an intern because just a few years ago, he had a thriving career. Fancart graduated from Penn State University in 2005 with a bachelor's in civil engineering. For three years he worked in the land development and construction safety inspection business, but then construction almost dried up after the housing crisis. "I was forced to rethink my entire career," he says. Fancart decided to follow a passion — computer science and graduated in May from Virginia Commonweath University’s computer science program.
As a Web development intern, Chris has learned some of the popular languages for website design such as HTML, CSS and ExpressionEngine. Fancart says within eight days of working at VisionPoint marketing, he learned more than he anticipated learning for the entire three-month internship. “So far I've been able to keep up. I feel very grateful for what I'm getting here. I also love that I'm not watching the clock, and I feel extremely welcomed.”
Kenecia Jenkins - Production Assistant Intern
Kenecia Jenkins came to VisionPoint Marketing with a definite plan: to become better at web development and to gain hands-on experience with large projects. As the organization’s production assistant intern Kenecia is on task to achieve just that. She’s working on the UNC Charlotte migration project, one of VisionPoint’s larger accounts, helping migrate all current web information to make it more streamlined, and better organized.
Kenecia’s biggest hope for her three month internship is to learn more about the backend of programming and to get a better feel for the web. She wants to use her ongoing internship projects to supplement her studies at ECPI University where she pursues an associate’s degree in web development and ultimately, get a job as a production assistant for a marketing agency, or for a large corporation.
So far, Kenecia, who also nobly balances her internship and studies with a retail job, feels completely on task. “Interning for VisionPoint Marketing has taught me there’s a lot to the web. I’m being exposed to a lot of things and I’m seeing all that is involved in a big web migration project. This is amazing, definitely an eye opener for me.”
Carissa Niederkom – Project Manager Intern
Project manager intern Carissa Niederkom recently graduated from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. She sees her internship with VisionPoint Marketing as an additional way to gain contacts and experience in her industry. "You can learn a lot in a university setting, but nothing beats having hands-on experience," she says.
Now on her third week with her internship Carissa has handled everything from working on a style guide to organizing VisionPoint’s active projects for the upcoming months. She enjoys the quick pace and learning so much in such a short time. She's also learned the power of good and strong internal communication and time management. "I've been given a long list of things to do and if I don't manage my time, I'm simply not going to be successful," she says. Carissa’s hope for her internship is to become a valued team member and secure a similar job, full time elsewhere or with VisionPoint Marketing.
Anne Rhodes — Graphic Design Intern
In December 2010, Anne Rhodes graduated from the Meredith College with a bachelor degree in graphic design. She then busied herself with a productive internship with a Raleigh based interior design firm and now a new graphic design internship with VisionPoint Marketing. The close interaction between the intern and creative team is partly what appealed to her. At VisionPoint Marketing she also realized she could learn more about the design of websites and how to develop interesting but realistic website design — both extremely important skills for a graphic designer.
Since starting, Anne has been busy contributing to new business cards for VisionPoint Marketing. She will be assisting in designing a print collateral piece for a higher education client, making the piece more succinct with the client’s recently redesigned website. Anne is also improving the design and look of the VisionPoint website.
Her biggest hope for this three-month internship is to abstract as much information as possible about graphic design, and to learn how graphic design and website development work together. "I'm learning a lot here and am thrilled with the amount of responsibility I've been given," she says.
Mari Tanaka – Project Manager Intern
Project manager intern, Mari Tanaka graduated from two universities this summer:
Kansaigaidai University in Japan and Valparaiso University in Indiana. She was selected as a dual degree exchange student at Kansaigaidai University which allows her to study English in Japan for two years and two years study in the U.S. as well. At Valparaiso University she earned a business administration bachelor’s degree with a marketing concentration. Mari entered into her internship with VisionPoint Marketing seeking field experience before looking for a full-time marketing role, either for our organization or for another company.
So far she has been tasked with assisting with competitive analysis for one of our higher education clients’ program [this entailed comparing websites from other universities]. Additionally she supporting another higher education client’s social media campaign. Next she will continue working and assisting with several social media projects.
What Mari likes best about interning with VisionPoint Marketing is how welcoming the environment is. “From day one we were all invited to the staff meeting and expected to contribute on what went well for that week," Mari says. "We are all made to feel equal and I think this is unusual,” she says. Her biggest hope for her time here is gathering some of the skills she needs to pursue her lifelong career goal: working as a marketing manager. "Interning here will certainly bring me closer to this dream.”
Ashlee Little is a Senior Account Manager at VisionPoint Marketing. One of her favorite things about working at VisionPoint is collaborating with such a smart, driven and passionate team.