Jennifer Cox
Currently: Marketing Writer / Editor at North Island College
I studied CREW 475: Internships in Writing and Publishing in my final year at VIU and the course provided a valuable segue from school to career, teaching us how to research career prospects, develop strong resumes and practice interview skills. The instructor, Brook Pearce was great at providing encouragement and direction to help us secure employment. He provided a great list of career research sites and was always willing to give advice on job search strategies, working with us to improve our job search and interview skills. The time we spent developing our resumes and cover letters made a big difference when it came time to find work. Brook was very invested in the success of the class and went out of his way to connect me with an employer, helping me secure a paid internship on campus.
My internship, working on the Compass eZine, was a valuable learning experience that provided me with the opportunity to develop, write and edit a digital student magazine that was distributed weekly to VIU students, faculty and staff. It was so great to be able to apply the skills I’d been learning in class while also gaining new skills, such as how to use Mailchimp- a great platform for marketing communications.
During my internship, I worked closely with Dr. Carrie Chassels, Executive Director of Student Affairs. I was grateful to have such an engaged and inspiring mentor. She was really good about providing advice and mentorship to ensure the project was successful. She helped connect me with the right people on campus to ensure I had dynamic, relevant content to share and gave me the creative freedom to design, write and edit the content each week, allowing me to create and distribute a publication that I felt very proud of.
My internship gave me confidence in my skills as a writer and confirmed my belief that writing is an important tool for engagement. In the last month of my studies, I saw a job posting for a writer at North Island College and jumped at the chance to be part of a dynamic marketing team. I worked with my internship coordinator, Brook Pearce to ensure my resume was up to date and engaging before I submitted it.
I was thrilled when, three weeks before graduation, I was offered full time work. My new position evolved into a permanent role, one that I would not have qualified for without the skills I learned at VIU.