Launching Her Marketing Career During Jan Term: Caroline Burnett ’10

Caroline Burnett didn’t spend January Term sitting in a classroom. Instead, she powered up her resumé by working alongside the team at local marketing agency Launch Something, helping with press conferences, contacting clients, researching products, and brainstorming catchy slogans for upcoming marketing pieces.

“It was challenging in the beginning, but since I’d taken Marketing Communications at Converse, I felt prepared.

It was a competitive application process to land the internship, but Burnett was confident in her ability to contribute to the firm.  “It was challenging in the beginning, but since I’d taken Marketing Communications at Converse, I felt prepared. In this class, I studied advertising, public relations, sales promotions, interactive marketing and direct marketing, and other parts of marketing plans. I incorporated what I’d learned in class into my internship.”

“The most rewarding part was being able to work so closely with the Launch crew,” she said. “As (we were) getting ready for a press conference at the YMCA to announce the fundraising campaign for a new building, I compiled names for a distribution list, researched the history of the YMCA for the press folders, organized information for the event, and met with clients to plan the press conference.”

Burnett, who is majoring in business administration with a concentration in marketing and minoring in Chinese, credits her faculty mentors in the Department of Economics, Business & Accounting with preparing her for the internship. “All the professors in the department have done a wonderful job contributing to my education at Converse. They have taught me to work hard, become more assertive, and to never doubt myself.”

After graduating, she hopes to work with a marketing firm for a few years before pursuing a graduate degree. “I also hope to travel abroad to China to experience business and marketing from an entirely different perspective.”