Journalism junior Samantha VanHoef spent this past summer working as an intern with Dow Chemical Company’s corporate branding and advertising team.
Her biggest project was organizing an event to celebrate the opening of a new building in Midland, Mich.
“We worked really hard for a long time. Twice, we thought the event wasn’t even going to happen,” she said. In the end, the event was so popular they ran out of seats.
Dow CEO Andrew Liveris stated he was surprised at the success of the event. “That blew my mind,” VanHoef said. “To have the CEO stand five feet from me and be impressed with what we pulled off.”
VanHoef first heard of the internship with Dow through a recruiter who came to a meeting of Michigan State’s Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA). She then followed up with the recruiters at ComArtSci Connect, the college’s largest, interactive career event.
Before her internship at Dow, VanHoef had no idea what was involved with corporate communications.
“They were like, ‘Can you put together a communications plan?’ starting right off the bat. You have to figure it out,” she said. “Now, going through class, I already know how to do this.”
Each of VanHoef’s internships has given her a better idea of how she can use her journalism training even if she doesn’t become a reporter.
“Every time I have an internship, I think, ‘This is it, this is what I want to do,’” she said. “This experience has opened my eyes to other opportunities.”
VanHoef credits ComArtSci’s supportive faculty with being immensely helpful in planning her career.
“There are a lot of really, really good faculty members here who want you to do well,” she said. “It’s not a competitive environment that if you do well, I can’t do well also. It’s my network is your network. And there are a lot of people in the college who try to make that happen for you. They celebrate your wins.”
By Kelsey Block, Journalism and Arts and Humanities double major
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