This is a big month here at ELEVATEthinking and it’s a little late, but we’re welcoming two new interns – Laura Contrucci and Emily Baker to the crew. And we are very excited for them to join us! There is more to come about both of them over the next few months, as they tweet (@lauracontrucci and @bakerej8) and blog about their experiences here. But let’s fill you in on the why’s and what’s.

WHY’S

Earlier this year we decided that it was the right time for us to reevaluate our current internship program. Supporting young professionals has always been a part of ELEVATE and we’ve always had interns, it was just time for a more coordinated process that would benefit both our interns and us. This increased effort included adding more design and copywriting opportunities.

The ELEVATE crew has a vast amount of design knowledge and experience that we’re anxious to share with the up-and-coming creative community. And we’re aiming to do that this year through getting more involved in our industry community, and further developing our internship program to have a direct impact on the up-and-coming talent.

Thus started the process of determining what we wanted in interns, and how we get our interns. But more importantly, how do we create an internship program that’s more than just washing cars and cutting presentation boards.

WHAT’S

I’m sure most of you saw our post regarding the internship opportunity – “Are you ready to run with the wolf pack?” (I can be optimistic on how many read our post considering the number of entries we received.)

Our blog post was just the kick-off to finding the right cubs to join our pack this summer. This same message went to countless schools around Ohio, and all of the industry job boards we could think of. We enjoyed pouring through all of the portfolios and quickly narrowed our search to just few candidates we felt were the right fit for our team.

A few face-to-face interviews later, or in Laura’s case a Skype call from Italy – we found our interns. Not giving all the goods away, but a few tidbits on each… Laura is a fourth-year visual communication design student from Kent State (no favoritism from Troy) and she was a professional from the start. Emily is a Miami University grad with a focus in copywriting and interest in account management. Her enthusiasm and persistence made us interested from the first email.

While Laura and Emily are with us they’ll experience every bit of our process from Concept to Production and even Case Study development, through both internal and client work. But more importantly we will give both a reflection of how a creative team operates, and the process of creating great work.