As a Strategic Communications major, it has been deeply engraved in me that internships are everything. If you graduate college without a single internship, then good luck jumpstarting your career because it just won't happen - at least, that's what everyone in the department keeps telling me. Naturally, I heeded this advice and quickly searched for intern programs to which I began applying. After an exciting interview process with Kyser Musical Products, Inc., in Canton, Texas, they decided to hire me as their marketing intern, and I have been working for them since the coronavirus outbreak shut down the world.

Kyser is a music production company that is very well known for its guitar products such as strings and humidifiers, but it has a huge presence in the music industry due to the famous guitar capo. Through all of their successes, Kyser happens to be celebrating its 40th anniversary! If "celebration" doesn't have "intern" written all over it, I don't know what does! My supervisor has been a huge proponent of building my skills through this program so any opportunity she can find for me, I take.

Part of this current celebration includes their "The Next 40" campaign, which highlights emerging artists that really embody the values of Kyser, as well as the future of the company and its brand. I've been working alongside my supervisor for a couple of weeks now to plan gift boxes to celebrate these next 40 artists, and I finally got to make a trip to the warehouse to pack them up and prepare them for shipping. It was so exhilarating to see the fruition of a project I helped create.

Don't get confused, I definitely did NOT design the campaign, but I did have some say in the gift box ideas and products that were sent out. I loved getting to interact with so many people for a common goal, but then to really get to see the work and the finished product was beyond cool. This internship has been such a fun journey, and I can't wait to see what my next few weeks here will look like.