Building Confidence to Achieve Career Goals

Meghan Cote '16

An English major's marketing internship at Valley Youth House

By Kaytlyn Gordon ’19

As a college student, working in a professional setting can feel a bit intimidating. But when English major Meghan Cote ’16 accepted an internship in the administrative office at Valley Youth House she soon realized that she actually had a lot to offer the non-profit.

Cote’s combination of English and marketing courses proved to be the perfect foundation to take on the responsibilities of a development and marketing internship at the organization that aims to combat youth homelessness.

“My main responsibilities included: writing the monthly newsletter that went out to Valley Youth House’s subscribers, generating news spotlights for employees and youth within the organization, assisting in social media content development, and writing a variety of reports for the department,” Cote says.

Her English classes helped her to formulate and organize her ideas, and, she says, helped her to write in a way that was engaging to Valley Youth’s wide audience. And it was her marketing classes that helped her to analyze different situations in terms of what could best promote the organization’s message, Cote explains. “There was definite value in knowing my education directly correlated to what I was doing in my internship.”

“There was definite value in knowing my education directly correlated to what I was doing in my internship.” — Meghan Cote '16

Cote says the experience of directly integrating classroom experience and involvement in English-related campus clubs/organizations into a professional setting focused her future career goals to finding a marketing and communications position within a college or university. But her biggest takeaway from her internship—confidence.

“I often worried that I had so much to learn when it comes to working within a professional setting, but I soon realized that I had a lot more to offer the Valley Youth House team than I thought.”