Humanities Internship Spotlight
Claire Sudbury | Megan McLaughlin | Kyungmin Rha
| Hannah Johnson | Lexi Lilly
Humanities students gain valuable, career-ready skills through their coursework and co-curricular programs. Internships offer an essential opportunity to apply these skills in real-world settings, explore potential career paths, and gain professional experience. For many students, completing an internship is a key step in successfully transitioning from college to the workplace.
Since being in college, I've learned that making connections is one of the most valuable things you can do for yourself and your career, so I set out to do just that. My family owns a personal training studio in Holladay, and my mom was looking for a company to help with our SEO research. She came across Exploring Not Boring, a local marketing company that focuses on building natural engagement and organic leads. Coincidentally, they mentioned to her that they were looking for someone to run their social media and assist with strategy. When my mom shared that I was studying communication, they invited me to meet with them the following week, and that's how my internship began.
From the very beginning, I worked closely alongside the CEO, who gave me hands-on experience in areas I hadn't yet explored, even after three years of coursework. I learned how to conduct client research, identify audience behaviors, and tailor content strategies that aligned with each client's unique goals. One of my biggest takeaways was learning how much psychology and experimentation go into understanding what attracts engagement and drives conversions. Although I faced many learning curves early on, this internship confirmed that comms and marketing are truly where my passion lies. I often found myself brainstorming new ideas outside of work and jotting them down in my phone to share later.
After several months of learning the ropes, my supervisor trusted me to fully manage client social platforms. That opportunity allowed me to express my creativity while maintaining brand consistency and boosting engagement through fresh content ideas, trending audio, and visually cohesive storytelling. I also collaborated with local businesses and helped plan content around community events, which gave me a stronger sense of how to connect strategy with authenticity. This experience not only strengthened my creative and analytical skills but also showed me that I thrive in fast-paced, idea-driven environments where innovation and storytelling go hand in hand.
I discovered this internship through a friend who knew someone in the industry. As they say, it's all about connections and who you know. For anyone looking for an internship, I would definitely recommend leveraging your connections because I never would have gotten this opportunity if I hadn't networked.
For this internship, I write creative articles about the featured guests that come on the show, events, and businesses in Utah. I'm also in charge of taking social media content for the GTU Instagram. In addition to those things, I help the crew with setting up the set for the guests, greeting the guests and getting them mic'd up to go on the air, and whatever else the producers might need!
This internship first interested me as I had never had any prior news experience before. It was nice to try something new. I already had sales, advertising, social media, writing, and customer service experience, but not so much news, so I was excited to round out my overall work experience, catering more to my degree. Now I have a good idea of what working in news or broadcasting would consist of. I enjoyed the lifestyle aspects of this job as I wasn't so much in the real "news" area, so I got to write more creatively about food, fashion, and other lifestyle things going on in the heart of Utah, which interests me a lot more than politics or other worldly news.
Kyungmin Rha
Major(s): Communication
Internship: CLASSUM
Role: Business Development & Operations Intern
I'm currently doing my internship at CLASSUM, an EdTech company that develops Learning Management Systems (LMS) and AI chatbot solutions for universities. I am working as a Business Development & Operations Intern on the higher education business team. I was drawn to this position because I have always been passionate about education, especially how universities can design flexible, personalized learning environments. CLASSUM’s mission is to enhance communication and engagement between professors and students. This aligned deeply with my interest in using technology to improve learning accessibility and quality.
Throughout the internship, I contributed to a variety of projects supporting both internal operations and client relations. My work included conducting competitor analysis, preparing research materials before university partnership meetings, and creating presentation decks for both internal and external stakeholders. I also assisted with government project documentation and occasionally participated in presentations myself. I also helped manage CLASSUM’s official blog and developed AI-generated meeting preparation tools for our team.
This experience strengthened my ability to communicate strategically, adapt quickly to different institutional contexts, and collaborate across diversities. Working closely with full-time managers taught me how to align client needs with our product’s value.
I believe this internship has enhanced my understanding of how innovation and empathy can coexist in the field of higher education and EdTech.
During my internship with Enforce the Sport as a WNBA writing intern, I worked directly in the field of sports journalism. I wrote a variety of articles, from breaking news to game recaps and analysis, contributing to coverage that highlights and uplifts women’s sports. One of the moments I’m most proud of was when I had the most views of any author on the site for a specific month, which showed me the impact strong and consistent coverage can have on an audience.
A key challenge I faced was learning how to take constructive feedback from editors and apply it to my work. That process helped me grow not only as a writer but also as a professional, learning to adapt and collaborate. This internship also provided lifelong connections with individuals who contributed to my work. I also developed skills in brainstorming ideas, shaping them into full articles and using digital tools with the internship to publish and promote content. Overall, this experience has strengthened my confidence and confirmed that I want to keep building a career in sports media.
I was drawn to this internship because I have a journalism emphasis but also because I’m really interested in broadcast media. Hockey is also very entertaining to watch, and I would love to do sports photography one day. Right now, I am culling photos, which is essentially choosing the best photos out of the many that the photographers will take during a hockey game. After doing this, I will then tag the photos with things like the player that is in the photo and what game it is. This helps sort the many photos and, in the future, it can be used when you need to find photos featuring a certain player or during a specific game.
Last year, I worked the cameras for the broadcast during the games. It was very fun and interesting to see the “behind the scenes” of how broadcasts are filmed, uploaded, to YouTube, and the process behind it. I also occasionally was the “technical director,” which meant I was telling the cameras where to focus, where to point, etc. It was interesting being in more of a leadership position compared to working with a camera. This allowed me to get more comfortable with directing people to do what I thought was best without asking for advice or help from someone else more experienced.
The hockey manager, AJ Boldan, is very receptive to our ideas and often asks our opinions on how things are done. He is always thinking about how things could be better and what we can do to improve them to create a more professional broadcast experience for both the hockey teams and the fans. This allows me to think about current issues or problem areas during the broadcast process to try to come up with solutions or methods that would benefit the team.
I would say to others looking at similar internships to go for it. When I initially heard about this internship, I was nervous, and not quite sure if I wanted to even do this as a career. Though I now find myself loving this kind of stuff and considering doing it as my career, any experience you can get is amazing. Whether or not you want to professionally pursue the internship you’re doing, being able to do it and gaining experience is the most important part. It’s also very exciting and can lead to you meeting new people and making connections you never thought you could make