Graduated Interns and Alumni of the CCIDM Share Their Memories and Experience Gained from Their Hard Work

Written by Hened Malak

Edited by Matheus Cordeiro

September 3, 2022

       Now that the 2021-2022 academic year has come to an end, we wanted to see what the Center’s most recent graduates have to say about their time at the Center. I interviewed our graduates to get a peek into what they’ve learned in their time at the Center and how they’ll apply their experience to their bright futures.

Vivian Graft

       Vivian Graft graduated in Fall 2021 as a Business Administration major with a subplan in International Business, as well as a minor in Marketing Management. She joined the Center for Customer Insights and Digital Marketing during her last two semesters (Summer and Fall) at Cal Poly. At her time in the Center, she was promoted to the Center’s Corporate and External Relations Specialist. She initially joined the Center to get a little more experience before graduating. For Vivian, “it [the internship] ticked some of the boxes like being 15 hours a week, which was manageable.” Like the interns I’ve highlighted next, she wasn’t sure of what kind of research would occur and went on to say that “I really didn’t remember what my expectations were, but I do think that my experience did differ from my expectations. I didn’t think it would be so rigorous.” Despite her initial uncertainty, by the end of her time at the Center, the internship had changed her career goals and has considered pursuing a PhD in the future. 

       Her experience at the Center helped her realize that she “was capable of hands-on, in-depth research. It made me feel better about my abilities.” She initiated and continues to work on the Femvertising Research Project with Britney Ly and Krystal Serrano. Femvertising is a research project that focuses on women’s realistic and unrealistic portrayals in advertisements and the generational preferences that moderate brand loyalty and purchase intentions in relation to these portrayals. Vivian expressed that she was super interested in this research project and was excited to present, and  “was very surprised when we saw Femvertising 101 win at one of these conferences!” She had an overall positive experience, and although the other interns weren’t expecting the work to be so rigorous (much like herself) she enjoyed working with other students and found that she learned a lot. 

       With the skills she acquired during her time at the Center, she intends to work in marketing; specifically, in content writing and marketing analytics. Vivian’s most significant learning opportunity was “[t]he research process, what it takes to go through the process of being published, and the literature review. Learning the research process and HOW to read research articles.” To give you some context, every Center member has worked under Dr. Jung’s supervision on a project they either initiate or given to them, but they sit in the front row and drive the project with Dr. Jung as the advisor. Furthermore, research assistants are tasked in Center esential jobs revolving around the three Center missions – (1) promoting cutting-edge research, (2) offering innovative educational programs, and (3) outreach to the business community. While Center interns may be involved in different tasks around digital marketing and customer analytics, they all are involved in a research project. One final note from Vivian to future interns: “Definitely, try your best to keep up with the training modules. Even if it doesn't seem relevant to what you’re doing now, it’ll help you in the future. Make sure you communicate with your research group.”

Jeffrey Hsu

       Jeffrey Hsu graduated in Spring 2022 with a B.S. in Business Administration with a subplan in Marketing Management. He started out as both a research assistant for the COVID-19 Hospitality team and Social Media Marketing and Analytics Specialist in Summer 2021. He was promoted to Digital Marketing Lead in October 2021 due to his excellent work ethics, interpersonal skills, proactiveness, and ability to plan and execute towards goals, according to Dr. Jung. Jeffrey has an eye for design and organization, so for his duration at the Center he spent a lot of time learning new ways to make informative posts on a wide variety of social media outlets, how to get a large engagement rate from the audience, creating engaging and eye-catching email marketing campaigns, video production, and the overall management of the Center’s digital marketing jobs. As part of internship tradition, Jeffrey was also encouraged to prepare and present a workshop on a topic of his interest. For him, it was a “Marketing on Instagram: A Complete Guide to a Successful Strategy for Your Business.” Jeffrey was a jack of all trades! As Dr. Jung says time and time again, “I have never met an undergraduate student like him.” Even without having a chance to learn the role of a lead formerly, he was able to figure out much of the work by himself based on manuals and proactively sought out help from Dr. Jung. Indeed, Jeffrey was an incredible intern who had a lasting, positive impact on how digital marketing is managed at the Center today.

       Jeffrey initially found the research assistant position “through an email over the summer,” he goes on to say “I needed a job that fit my major that could help me with my future career. When I received the email, I applied and immediately after my interview I was accepted!” He also joined the COVID-19 Hospitality Research project with Emily Harrison. Emily and Jeffrey further developed the COVID-19 Hospitality research project with the intention of helping restaurants and coffee shops in the hospitality industry by identifying the underlying characteristics of individuals who are willing to wear masks while they are staying in the hospitality establishments. Jeffrey presented in three other student research conferences and competitions before he graduated. 

       The dissemination of his research culminated when he obtained several grants from the university that supported his trip to Western Decision Sciences Institute’s Conference that was held in Hawaii, April 2022. He was the only undergraduate student in attendance when most of the conference presenters and attendees were professors. “No one knew that Jefrrey was an undergraduate student.” Dr. Jung recalled. “The audience were surprised to hear that he was only an undergraduate student.”

       Jeffrey stated the internship allowed him to “work his way up to a job at the Center as a social media specialist and eventually as a digital marketing lead (a lead is equivalent to manager at the Center),” which aligns with the field he currently works in. Working as a social media specialist and digital marketing lead at the Center helped him as it taught him “how to get more engagement on social media, good habits for posting, and so on.” He stated that the internship was also a “good way to earn side-money while doing what I love.” Post-graduation, Jeffrey is currently a social media marketing analyst at an organization in LA. His goal is to become a social media coordinator.

Emily Harrison

       Emily Harrison graduated in Spring 2022, majoring in Business Administration with a subplan in Marketing Management and a minor in Economics. Even after graduation, she continues to contribute to the Center as a research assistant on the COVID-19 Hospitality team. She originally applied because she thought it would look good when she applied for a master’s program. During her time at the Center she was Dr. Jung’s personal research assistant, and unlike the other graduates, chose to remain in that position versus taking up a Center job because for Emily: “the research at the Center matche[d] my career goals pretty well considering I want to get into the consulting industry and research plays a major role in that sector.” For Emily, interning at the Center reached and exceeded her expectations.

       Like many students, she didn’t know much about research, aside from the kind that students do for GE classes. Moreover, she learned the process of writing a research paper, specifically stating: “I learned the general process of writing a research paper has a lot of steps. It’s really hard to churn out a paper in under a year all because of the approval and everything expected of you. Once I faced this myself, it was really easy to see why.” Like I said earlier, interning at the Center not only reached her expectations, but it also exceeded them. To her surprise she learned how to program with R - a coding language commonly used in data science and analytics. 

       When asked to reflect on her time at the Center, she responded with “it was honestly a really positive experience. I liked the people there, and it was definitely hard. It was an overall unique experience.” When reflecting on how her work at the Center impacted her presently, she went on to say that it was an experience that required self-sufficiency and “you had to figure things out yourself, which is very similar to the real field. It was good at making you more independent and prepared.” She wrapped up her interview with her advice to future interns: “After working with Dr. Jung, I got a lot of one on one time and realized he’s not scary at all, he's just very passionate about research. Just try your best, you’re there to learn so ask the proper questions and communicate because there was plenty of times I would mess up and he was always very patient.” We couldn’t have said it better, Emily! 

To Conclude...

      Although our graduates had varying roles at the Center, they all walked away with: self-sufficiency, problem solving, and team collaboration skills (the main soft skills for any role in any industry segment). The Center applauds these three graduates, and we can’t wait to see what the future reserves for them! 

If you are interested in conducting research, please contact Dr. Jung at jmjung@cpp.edu. Learn more about each of these and additional research projects here. To connect with any students in the cited article, visit the CCIDM Team and Alumni pages. If you are not already on our mailing list, please subscribe below to make sure you get an invitation!