THE LESSONS I LEARNED WHILE BEING AN INTERN.

My copywriting internship at FourthIdea started with a serendipitous meeting in March of this year. I met Monish, FourthIdea’s creative director, through a mutual connection — my advertising professor, Mike Jones-Kelley, who had once long ago (ok, not that long ago!) taught Monish.

I started work three weeks after graduating from St. Bonaventure University. I was immediately thrown into work here, and I loved it.

I’ve worked with clients from Buffalo, as well as clients all over the United States, including Concord, California. I’ve also had the pleasure of watching the FourthIdea team pitch to a huge potential client — and in so doing, I’ve learned a bit about the real-time life cycle of an ad campaign.

Interning at FourthIdea has been a dream for me. I’ve learned a lot about advertising, and just as much about myself. If that sounds corny, well it is. But it’s true. This wasn’t a cookie-cutter internship, collecting coffee and scanning paperwork. With exception of the time I was tasked with cleaning out the fish tank, this was learning to do real, meaningful work in a creative agency setting. It’s the type of work I dreamed of doing for real while I was still a student.

I also was blessed to work with a team of really great, fun, interesting people. Even though I had an hour and a half commute, I looked forward to getting here every morning, to spend time with some really talented people in my preferred industry.

I’m moving to New York to start work doing marketing in the publishing industry. Without the valuable insights and lessons I learned at FourthIdea, I’m sure I wouldn’t be given the opportunities I have now.