Hannah Benderoth is a senior who completed a fall semester internship in marketing at the O'Pake Institute for Economic Development at Alvernia University in Reading. The program, which partners college students with businesses to mutually benefit both, recently began offering internships to high school students to also offer them an opportunity to work on and gain experience in high-impact projects that fuel learning while providing valuable skills to local businesses, entrepreneurs, nonprofits and government and community partners. While in her internship, Hannah pitched a possible business idea, which earned her an O'Pake Excellence award for going above and beyond. She worked with various start-up businesses on business card design, websites and more.

Q: Hannah, can you tell us a bit about what your plans are for after graduation? Have you selected a college and a major?

A: After high school, I am planning on attending a four-year university with a major in digital marketing. I am mainly focused on Alvernia University due to their opportunities throughout the university and at O’Pake, although, I have not fully committed anywhere yet. After I get my degree, I plan to pursue a career in the digital marketing field.

Q: Can you tell us a bit about your internship? What does a typical day look like for you?

A: As a marketing and media intern at Alvernia University’s O’Pake Institute, I get to work on a lot of creative projects for actual businesses in the area. I have done a fully independent website design for a publishing business, a few collaborative website designs, multiple business card creations, branding and mission presentations for companies, product research, and much more. On a typical day, I come into the office and plan out my day. I talk to my mentor to see if there is anything new she has for me to do, and then I get to work on my projects. As a digital marketing focus I am on my computer most of the day using softwares such as Wix, Canva, and Powerpoint. I communicate with other staff members and interns throughout the day and attend business meetings when scheduled.

Q: How did you select your internship? Did someone help you select it? Did you seek out the opportunity on your own? Were you asked to do the internship?

A: I found this internship through Mr. Ricketts, the internship coordinator at Exeter. I was struggling to find an internship that had exactly what I was looking for and he suggested O’Pake to me. I reached out to O’Pake, set up an interview, and found myself starting there at the beginning of the fall semester this year.

Q: Do you think your internship is helping you feel more confident about your decision to go to college and pursue your major?

A: The O’Pake Institute has been the biggest factor in deciding what I am doing with my future. Before senior year, I had no clue what I wanted to do or where I wanted to do it. When I started getting experiences at O’Pake in the field that I am in, that really settled it for me. I fell in love with the opportunities that Alvernia University gave and continues to give me, and I finally found a career field that fully interests me.

Q: What do you like most about your internship? Is there anything you don't like?

A: I like a lot of things about O’Pake, but something I always love to highlight is the fact that I can work with real businesses and companies at a high school level. They make sure I have all the help and materials I need, but otherwise I get creative freedom. I always get opportunities that are enjoyable and beneficial to me. Nothing ever feels like busy work, and I am building both hard and soft skills while I am communicating and working with clients. I also like to
mention to people that O’Pake has more than just marketing opportunities; they have interns who focus in communications, finance, and even engineering. I think it is really cool that they offer opportunities to people with many different interests. Although, one thing I would mention is that the workload varies from focus to focus, at least from what I have seen. Sometimes I will have five different projects, and others will only have one or two depending on what they are interning for and for how long they are interning for. I wouldn’t say that is a bad thing, but definitely something to note. They will never give you too much work and they will help those feeling overwhelmed with their workloads too. I really have nothing but good things to say about O’Pake.

Q: And finally, what would be your advice to a high school student who's thinking about Exeter's internship program?

A: If you are a high school student thinking about the internship program I would definitely recommend going for it. Make sure you find an internship that you will both enjoy and get a lot out of. Even if it doesn’t end up being something that you want to pursue, it will at least help you figure that out and let you dip your feet into real-world work experiences.