Job & Internship

October 2008 Internship Spotlight

Name: Jodi Jurgemeyer
Major: Journalism
Emphasis: Public Relations
Company: Morgan&Myers; Waukesha, Wisconsin

Duties: As with any agency, Morgan&Myers had limitless projects to accomplish throughout their fast-paced day. Immediately I sat in on meetings, met with colleagues and clients and became a sponge, soaking up as much as I could about the work I would do in the coming months.

My first projects were helping develop wireframes for a client, building media lists for future use and writing captions for press releases. After building credibility and trust with my supervisors, I was introduced to a project and client that my time would be devoted to – Case IH and their sponsorship days at the Racine County and Wisconsin State Fairs.

Along with attending client meetings and working closely with the Wisconsin State and Racine County Fair staff to plan events, I was responsible for updating the event plan for the client. As the summer progressed, my work grew to sending out releases, making calls to media inviting them to each event and lining up materials for each day’s events.

Most Memorable Experience: While working all day at the Racine County Fair Case IH Day, the grand finale was an evening concert for employees featuring country star Craig Morgan – Powered by Case IH. Before the show began I was included in the backstage meet and greet and met Craig himself. It was fun to see a summer spent planning end with an exciting bang, and be a part of the festivities.

Special Contribution: Putting the finishing touches on a press release announcing Case IH Day at the Wisconsin State Fair, we worked to pitch the story to local media that might be interested. Since everyone was wrapped up with other areas of the project, I was in charge of making the calls to Milwaukee area news stations and generating excitement for our event.

After pitching the story to Gus Gnorski, a special assignment reporter from Fox6 News, he offered to feature Case IH on his early morning coverage of the fair, and shoot footage for an additional story on the evening news. I coordinated logistics with Gus, found spokespersons from Case IH, provided them with material to prepare for their interviews and made a fast trip out to the state fairgrounds to work with their public relations director – all within 24 hrs!

In addition to the Fox6 News coverage, we had a strong amount of news coverage the day of the event and a positive public response to Case IH’s presence at the fair.

Advice to Future Interns: Don’t give up on yourself or be afraid to try something new! As an intern, you aren’t going to know how to do everything, you just have to put your best foot forward and work hard every day. In the end, you’ll walk away with a wealth of new experiences and a better idea of your strengths and weaknesses.

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