I have truly enjoyed my internship experience at Davey Tree. In the first couple days I was here, I was warmly welcomed by my co-workers, and each day has held the same friendly and team-oriented environment.

Primary, I have been responsible for internet marketing at Davey. I have created multiple e-blasts for Davey’s residential clients, Davey golf clients and utility services clients. The e-blast process involves creating and sending the email, setting up tracking information for Google Analytics, and completing a Google Analytics report a couple weeks after the email is sent. I have also worked closely with the remolding of Davey’s website, conducting interviews and writing content for the new Urban Forestry and Davey Golf landing pages, updating current website material in the new template and editing, grouping or deleting content to make the website more user-friendly overall. Lastly, I have been responsible from writing new “arborist advice” pages for Davey. These are pages of information about any tree care or lawn care related topic customers might want to read more information on. Throughout the summer, I’ve done research to find what topics could be added and written pages for those topics.
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One important lesson I’ve learned at my internship is to think of myself as a professional rather than “just the intern.” It can be intimidating to be in an office full of people who have had much more experience in marketing and public relations than I have, but I’ve learned that shouldn’t stop me from letting my voice be heard. This is the biggest advice I would give to future interns: don’t be afraid to speak up and share your ideas. Even though I am the intern, I am also someone with fresh ideas that can contribute to the company’s success. Going above what my responsibilities are, and offering suggests for how small things can be improved has really made a difference in my internship. All in all, the people here want to hear from someone with a different perspective. 

By Nick Sewell

During the three months I interned at e2b teknologies, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software reseller, developer, and consulting firm located in Chardon, Ohio, I gained an extensive knowledge of how things work in a real-world setting when it comes to public relations.

The people at e2b were very friendly and inviting, and I never once felt like a “lowly intern” during my time spent there.  The work environment was extremely positive, and I believe that helped in my success.

The majority of my time was spent writing press releases, blog posts, and white papers.  Aside from all the writing I did, I was also given the task of identifying and optimizing keywords that I thought the company needed to work on to increase its search engine optimization (SEO).  SEO was something that was brought up every day during my internship, and I was glad I had prior knowledge of the subject from the courses I’ve previously taken at Kent State.

Thanks to this internship, I feel much more confident about successfully completing my final year at Kent State and beginning to apply for entry-level jobs.  I learned a lot of skills from the experience that will help me succeed in my future career.
For future students, I would advise them to have confidence in their abilities from the interview process all the way up until the last day of the internship. 

Once you obtain an internship, don’t be nervous.  If you keep a positive attitude from the first day on forward, you will be successful.  Don’t forget those writing skills you learned in all of the PR courses!
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Also, I would advise students to pester their bosses with plenty of questions every day.  Getting advice from professionals in the PR field during an internship can go a long way toward future real-world success.  Plus, asking questions shows that you are taking the internship seriously, and it makes you look good.  I learned a lot from my supervisor about things that simply cannot be taught in a classroom, and I’m extremely thankful for that.