Spreading the Word

Dickinson interns at Sud de France.

Students sample internships in marketing, public relations and media

by MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson

Students interested in careers in international business, marketing, advertising and public relations (PR) have many options. From the first-year history major who’s interning at an international media company in Oxford, England, to the soccer enthusiast working at the world’s largest soccer museum (Barcelona, Spain) to the double major in art and French who’s getting a Francophile’s taste of the New York art scene, there are many interesting stories of summer-internship success. Here are a few.

Mark Brown ’17 – Providence Bruins

mark brown at his internship site

Hockey enthusiast Mark Brown ’17 secured an opportunity of a lifetime when he earned an internship with the Providence Bruins, the primary American Hockey League developmental organization for his favorite National Hockey League team, the Boston Bruins.

An international business & management major, club hockey player and Student Senate committee member, Brown contacted the Bruins directly last March. After a resume review and several phone interviews, he received word in April that he’d spend his summer in the offices atop the Bruins’ arena.

As a member of the Providence Bruins' marketing team, Brown assists with marketing and promotional campaigns, maintains a sponsorship inventory, updates player bios for the website and communicates with sponsors. He plans to return to the Bruins office as an intern during the winter break to continue the work.

“Working in an accelerated environment in the executive offices of the Providence Bruins—where [former Boston Bruins player] Don Sweeney is constantly in and out, and where everyone in the office works extremely hard day in and day out—has been an amazing experience,” he says, adding that his career aspirations have shifted slightly, as a result. 


Jasmin Lee ’16 – American Express Company

Lee Internship

The seeds for Ja Min "Jasmin" Lee ’16’s current internship were planted last spring, when this international business & management major took part in an internship with a Manhattan public-relations firm through the Dickinson in New York program.

“I loved every single aspect of the program and fell in love with the city,” says Lee, who began to apply for summer internships midway through the semester.

Combing through the Career Center's internship database, Lee discovered an opportunity at American Express Company. The internship was posted by Will Tsang ’06, a former political-science major who supervises Lee now.

A native of Korea, Lee said she enjoys meeting and working with the diverse staff at a large international corporation, because it offers her different perspectives on the field.

It is the fourth internship for this rising senior. She also worked at the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea last summer, interned at a startup incubator in Washington, D.C., last fall through the Washington Center program and performed public relations work at a global-affairs and strategic-communications agency last spring. She looks forward to launching a public-relations career in New York City after graduating from Dickinson.

“All my internships reminded me that that I have so many opportunities and potential career paths,” she says.


Sam Richards ’16 and Pia Holtmeier ’16 – Sud de France Développement

From left: Pia Holtmeier '16, Christina Socci ’13, Samuel Richards ’16, Mauricio Toscano '18 and Michelle Hovy ’14.

From left: Pia Holtmeier '16, Christina Socci ’13, Mauricio Toscano '18, Sam Richards ’16 and Michelle Hovy ’14.

Sam Richards  ’16 and Pia Holtmeier ’16 are interning in New York City with Sud de France Développement, where they are joined by fellow intern Mauricio Toscano ’18 and full-time employees Michelle Hovy ’14 and Christina Socci ’13. “We’re taking over,” Richards says, jokingly, noting that at the beginning of the summer, five of the New York office’s eight employees were Dickinsonians.

Headquartered in Montpellier, France, with offices in New York, London, Casablanca and Shanghai, Sud de France promotes the Montpellier region in southern France, with a focus on the area's wine, tourism, food products, investments and enterprises.

A double major in art & art history and French, Richards enjoyed three art-history internships in previous summers—as the first undergraduate intern at the Willem de Kooning Foundation, where he assisted with a major de Kooning retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA); at The Newark Museum, where he helped prepare an exhibition; and at Boston’s Skinner Auction House. 

This summer, he wanted to secure a position that drew on his French studies, and he found it in Sud de France, after discussing internship opportunities with Hovy. Richards appreciates the stimulating, global and fast-paced culture at the Manhattan office and the chance to practice French in a business setting. He also was thrilled to discover that his work also occasionally ties in with the New York art scene.

“I never expected to meet Yoko Ono because of my internship at a French firm,” he says, explaining that his company supplied the wine for a recent event tied to Ono’s exhibition at MoMA. “You just never know where your job will take you.”

Holtmeier, an international business & management major, found the summer internship through the Career Center’s online database. It is her second internship, having previously worked as a market-research analysis intern at Roland Berger (Dusseldorf, Germany) the summer after her first year at Dickinson.

At Sud de France, Holtmeier helps plan and execute social-media communications, manages a donation-collection project, writes media pitches and updates data and portfolios.

She enjoys the international atmosphere and the chance to shoulder day-to-day responsibilities in a global corporation. “I’ve also learned about myself as an employee,” she adds.


Christopher Pollock ’18 – Futbol Club Barcelona

christopher pollock

As a global traveler and member of the men’s soccer team, Christopher Pollock ’18 has many reasons to enjoy his summer internship with the Futbol Club (FC) Barcelona, a professional sports organization in Spain and home to one of the most-visited museums in Europe.

Located at the FC Barcelona stadium, the museum attracts nearly 12,000 visitors a day, and Pollock, who works directly for its site manager, speaks Spanish exclusively as he assists with many aspects of the work, including restocking photo books, creating souvenir products and helping customers. He also has designed a customer survey and supervises other summer employees.

The internship marks Pollock’s fourth summer trip to Barcelona. During the previous three summers, he’d traveled to Spain to visit a former foreign-exchange student, Jordi, his family had hosted during the 2012-13 academic year. “Jordi’s father happened to be the director of the [Futbol Club Barcelona] museum at the team’s stadium, and we had always talked about the possibility of me working in Barcelona one day,” Pollock remembers. “After learning that my [intended] major required an internship, he was the first person I contacted.”

Pollock is already planning a summer 2016 internship in sports promotion, hopefully with Philadelphia’s Major League Soccer team.

“I think the most valuable part of this internship is that I am able to see, for the first time, that what we learn in class actually applies in a real life-situation,” he says, noting that he welcomed the chance to brush up on his Spanish-language skills, as well.

In addition to these students, more than 400 Dickinson students are gaining valuable experience this summer through internship and research opportunities in science, finance, government, entertainment and other fields.

Learn more

Published August 7, 2015