By Emma Gun, Marketing and Communications Intern
My summer was full of exciting opportunities when I served as the Marketing and Communications Intern for the Pension Boards’ Summer Internship Program. I strengthened my video editing and graphic design skills, broadened my understanding of data analysis, and met incredible people. These opportunities were most accessible in my contributions to the Capstone Project, which engaged summer interns to analyze, discuss, and explore how clergy member’s mental health might affect their personal financial decision-making.
This Capstone Project meant taking on a broad and hugely important topic. I had the independence and trust of my supervisors to draw on my skillset in order to advocate for such a prevalent issue. In some companies, it’s easy to give interns menial, simple work to do, but the Pension Boards entrusted us with this Capstone Project and made us aware that our work had the opportunity to make a significant impact within the United Church of Christ.
Within the Capstone Project, each intern was able to bring their unique skills and knowledge to the table. I was able to incorporate my love for video editing and marketing by creating a sample campaign that would draw people’s attention to clergy mental wellness via social media. Under the “Think Differently” campaign, I created a variety of graphics and videos that not only helped me strengthen my marketing capabilities but also helped communicate a very important issue—mental well-being. The Capstone Project therefore allowed me to hone my creative abilities, while fueling my analytical interests. The interns worked together to create sample surveys and draw upon past studies conducted on the intersection between mental well-being and financial decision-making.
Our Capstone Project allowed us to draw on every one of our strengths and showcase them to the Executive Committee for the Board of Trustees, which resulted in a unified and synchronized final product. In our final presentation, and because of the close bond that the Capstone Project and the summer internship allowed us to foster, our presentation was fluid and strong!
Throughout the summer, the Pension Boards encouraged us to foster these relationships at every turn. The Capstone Project allowed us to work alongside our fellow interns and intimately understand how we each operated. The weekly Leadership Roundtable sessions allowed us to engage with different Pension Boards employees to understand and learn about their career journeys and how the company works on an individual level. In addition, the Pension Boards summer barbeque provided us with an exciting opportunity to meet everyone in the office, compete in fun games, and eat great food!
The Pension Boards summer internship is an amazing opportunity to take on meaningful, intriguing work that will allow you to draw on your own experiences and build new ones. The level of trust and independence that the Pension Boards puts into its interns is unrivaled! This internship will allow you to grow as a creative and analytical worker but also create meaningful and lasting relationships.