New possibilities.
In 2016, I was fortunate enough to be selected in the highly competitive Multicultural Advertising Intern Program, also known as MAIP. MAIP allows students to work at prestigious advertising agencies on various accounts, interact with advertising professionals on a day-to-day basis, and gain valuable professional credentials. As a part of my selection into the program, I was placed in a 10-week internship at Momentum Worldwide in New York City on the integrated production team.
Outside of the internship, I participated in a series of agency sponsored professional development workshops and seminars, which provided a deeper dive into the various advertising and media disciplines. Additionally, I collaborated with other MAIP 2016 Fellows to create, develop and deliver an intern project for the 4 A's organization. The entire experience was extraordinary, and introduced me to new skills and a network of professionals that are considered some of the best and brightest in their respective disciplines.
Real work, real experience.
The central focus of the 22-week MAIP experience is a summer internship at an advertising agency. At Momentum Worldwide, I was working directly with their integrated production team at their offices in New York City. It was a valuable experience to be working directly with advertising professionals on real accounts that were both large and small.
For example, one of the agency’s major clients is Verizon. To assist with their experiential activations, I created and managed the production of a digital signage workflow matrix by organizing the technical and production specs of more than 150 digital signs at 15 NFL stadiums across the country for Verizon advertisements. For a smaller client, I conducted in-store research for competitive footwear brands about in-store technology and footwear health offerings. Lastly, I had the chance to collaborate with a team of other Momentum Interns to create, develop and deliver a pitch project for a local, non-profit organization to the client and the entire Momentum team.
Taking the next step.
The experience with 4A’s MAIP and Momentum Worldwide was invaluable. To be selected into the program from a talent source pool of over 3,800 colleges, universities and portfolio schools across the country was a reaffirming sign of the work I had done up to that point. But more importantly, it provided me with the chance to rub shoulders with highly skilled professionals from across the country, and gain a valuable professional credential to be better positioned in the marketplace.