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This summer, Abigail Baier (‘26) really cashed in on experience at Cashman Katz. Abby, a marketing major, gained hands-on experience as a Social Media Intern at Cashman Katz, an integrative marketing firm in Glastonbury, CT. She shares that after graduating she plans to start working in the marketing industry, "After I take a trip to Europe to celebrate graduating, of course!” Abby is a member of Women in Business and the merchandise chair for Her Campus, a nationally published online magazine with a chapter here at UConn. Additionally, she works as a communications assistant for UConn’s School of Pharmacy. Abby worked closely with directors and supervisors in the social media department, creating content calendars, integrating current trends, and analyzing performance metrics “to understand how our content was being received by our clients and their customers,” She shared. “I also had the opportunity to take on responsibilities in other departments, such as performing research and writing blogs for the PR department. With the dynamic and collaborative nature of the company, I got to collaborate with members from various departments and other interns for many of my assignments!”
While Abby admits that team meetings made her nervous at first, “they became one of my favorite parts as I got to really understand the dynamics of working at a marketing firm. Additionally, I had the opportunity to share ideas and thoughts in these meetings, gaining my confidence and helping any feelings of imposter syndrome that I had!” It was challenges like this that helped Abby not be scared to ask for help! She admits that although it sounds cliche, “I have sometimes struggled in classes to get assignments done efficiently because I have been scared to ask for help or worried about making mistakes. Before my internship, I knew that I didn’t want to carry this habit into my professional career, so I made sure to always ask for help when I didn’t understand assignments within my internship.” It was through lessons like this that helped Abby grow professionally. However, she also credits the business school for helping her find that intersection between academics and experience. “Academically,
it was rewarding to see how what I was learning [in my internship] directly correlated to what I had learned in the classroom. I took MKTG 3665 with Bill Ryan during the summer, which focused on digital marketing, and being able to apply the concepts I learned in that class to my internship was a great intersection between my academic and professional knowledge. Lastly, the professionalism that UConn’s business school instills in its students, along with expectations to come to class on time, dress appropriately, and engage with class content or business events, helped me maintain my professionalism, timeliness, and engagement throughout my internship.”
Abby took all the skills she learned throughout her time at UConn and during her internship to complete a project brainstormed by herself and another intern. "While in a meeting in the first week of my internship, I learned about a new client- two Continuing Care Retirement Communitys (CCRC) under one company,” Abby shares. "Looking over the marketing strategy on how to best redefine the brands, another intern and I came up with the idea of doing monthly blogs to integrate the new branding with stories and features of the communities. This idea became a project that spanned my entire internship, and combined my love for writing with my love for marketing, all while making a true impact on Connecticut residents!”
Abby's experience at Cashman Katz proved to be more than just a summer internship, it was a hands-on, dynamic, and collaborative experience that gave her confidence, sharpened her skills, and confirmed her passion for marketing.
As she puts it, internships allow you “to try out new roles, ask questions, and take risks while making mistakes and learning along the way.”
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