Amerigo Interns Build Skills and Connections
By Alex Prodoehl '22, Amerigo Intern, Communications Apprentice
December 31, 1969
Even with the complications of a worldwide pandemic, academic co-curriculars continue to flourish. One of the new internship opportunities offered this year for CDH students was the Amerigo Marketing Internship. Amerigo is an organization that brings international students to attend schools in the United States— one of which is CDH.
The students that participated in the internship were: Seamus Dougherty ’22, Julianne Mason ’22, and myself, Alexandra Prodoehl ’22. We were chosen through an interview process, and our involvement in the Amerigo Internship Program has included attending presentations on evolving marketing techniques with students around the country, creating marketing materials to be presented to the international market, and conducting tours for prospective international students.
Isabella Sun, director of the CDH branch of the program, developed the internship program to address some of the challenges presented by the pandemic.
“With all the travel restrictions and social distancing, it's almost impossible to maintain the traditional recruitment strategies,” Sun said. “So we thought about involving students and working with them to bring more real school updates during a pandemic to our prospective families.”
This program has proved invaluable in uncertain times, allowing us to portray an authentic experience of CDH.
“Nothing is more convincing and vivid than the experience from our current CDH students,” said Sun.
Interns are given the unique opportunity to explore the business world while in high school. We have learned how technology has come to influence and shape marketing. The program gives us the chance to learn through experience, while also helping the Amerigo program achieve their goals.
In our virtual meetings with students around the country, we have watched presentations on how marketing has evolved. During our first virtual meeting, we watched a presentation on the importance of social media in the marketing realm and its impact. We were then tasked to come up with ideas that utilized the tactics we learned to create a new way for the Amerigo company to connect with its audience. Later, we were advised on how to create an exemplary Linkedin profile, participated in mock interviews, and learned the significance of cultivating a brand.
We also worked on creating marketing materials for the school that display the variety of activities that can be found at CDH and are working on initiatives to immerse Amerigo students into the school. “We think the interns will be a great addition to our marketing team and provide very valuable insights. We created this internship program for the CDH students and hope someone who is interested in communication and business can also benefit from this experience,” Sun said.
Alexandra Prodoehl '22 is a Communications Apprentice. She is a voracious reader and writer. She is involved in mock trial, the National Honors Society, the Amerigo Marketing Internship, the Student Ambassador Club, and the Creative Writing Club. She is the Student Council Volunteer Corps leader, and is a senior editor for Yearbook. In college, she plans to double major in Integrated PR/Advertising and Marketing