Grady InternViews: Madison Courter

This is part of a series where we ask Grady College students to describe their internship experience.  

Madison Courter is a fourth-year double dawgs digital marketing and emerging media student working with Visit Madison as a Marketing and Communications Intern. Read on as she provides insight into what this internship looks like.

Briefly describe your internship and its associated responsibilities.

I’m interning with The City of Madison, Georgia in their travel and tourism department. My official title is the Marketing Communications Intern for Visit Madison. I was hired on in the marketing capacity, but also with the ability to create my role. They needed a website update, so I got hired to perform a website audit and identify any issues that they had within their website. 

What opportunities did you have during your internship?

Once they liked the work I did on their website, they had me work on two other websites. Through their websites, I performed updates and optimized their UX experience. Then I did more marketing communication: making their blogs, articles, press releases, and updating their visitor guide brochure.

What skills and knowledge have you gained from your internship?

I didn’t realize how writing-focused this internship was going to be. That’s a skill that I have furthered in this job and has become a path that has been open to me now. I didn’t think I was ever going to want to pursue writing or copywriting specifically in a career. But that is something now that I am looking forward to. 

What is one work you are proud of creating in this role?

I’m proud of my most recent blog that I wrote. It’s been very validating. They love all of the writing that I have done. I did one blog for them and they were like, ‘Wow, that was good. So I’m going to have you work on five other blogs.’ It’s been it’s been fun to throw in my writing. 

How did you balance your internship while being in college?

I had to be strict with myself, I needed to get my work-life balance down before I entered into the professional world. Having those set hours on Tuesday that took up my entire calendar, I don’t schedule anything with my friends. I don’t do anything for school during those times. I have to set hours for work and I just opened my computer and that’s all I do for those hours. Being able to have that separation has been important to getting a handle on it. 

What challenges have you overcome in this role?

I was hired to primarily focus on their website, but they hired a second intern who was doing more of the writing stuff. He was remote and that didn’t work with them. So they unfortunately let him go. They added most of his duties to my role. Juggling those additional responsibilities was a little difficult at first, but it just took me being open with communication with my manager and working on reasonable deadlines.

How has the Grady curriculum you’ve taken prepared you for this internship?

I’m in a class called Emerging Media Industries. We get to polish our professional portfolio and have professionals also come in and talk to us. During networking experience, critiquing our portfolio, and mock interviews in that class have been good and helpful for grounding me professionally. 

Who is one Grady Professor who has inspired you? 

I’ve had Kyla Sterling now three times. She’s so incredibly smart. She used to be an English professor so she focuses on the writing element of web design. I think that’s something none of my other professors have touched on. It’s really interesting to hear her take on that in design.

What advice would you give to someone looking to apply to similar internships?

Networking is key. It can open so many doors. I found this internship because of someone in my program. Whether going to career fairs or talking to people, always reach out.

How has this internship influenced your future career?

This industry is something that I had considered, but not seriously considered. I like it and want to go more on the agency side after graduation. I am looking at working for agencies that focus on working with the travel and tourism industry, or consumer packaged goods. I feel like there are so many opportunities and fun benefits that come along with the industry.