1. People are her passion
Technical skills are important, but Kate feels most at home with herself when she is talking with people and delivering results in teams. Throughout her collegiate experience, Kate has served as the account lead working to deliver creative and innovative work for clients like Suave Professionals, Penn State University, YMCA of Centre County, and the University Park Undergraduate Association. Through these experiences, she negotiated scopes to ensure outcomes, talked with team members to enhance team dynamics, and realized what motivated her most was seeing someone's eyes light up when he or she stumbled upon an insight or idea that drove a strategy. One key takeaway is that team members must always be on the same page at the beginning and the end of a meeting. That's why Kate has a Google Drive folder dedicated solely to agendas, decks, and one-pagers which she tries to make more attractive through her rudimentary Canva and Adobe skills. However, nothing is going to go anywhere if you don't like the people you're around. Kate gets that and works hard for people to feel at ease, if not friends before co-workers.
2. Discovery is in her DNA
Last summer Kate moved to Philadelphia without ever being there before. Was she scared? For sure. But was she determined to unearth and develop hard and soft skills that propelled her as an account management intern at Publicis Health? Of course. And was she going to visit every Philly neighborhood, taco joint and bike path during those ten weeks? You bet. Change is a welcomed challenge to Kate because it pushes her to dig deeper in whatever aspect she's working on. To seize the opportunity at hand, Kate lives in the moment and takes time to reflect immediately after (over a cup of coffee) in order to identify the next steps and gather sentiments. She is not afraid to ask questions and turn to books for perspective. After all, overdelivering requires a curious spirit.
3. She understands the intersection of communication and content
As a digital media trends and analytics minor and social media enthusiast, she found a natural draw to the digital media space. Her Hootsuite, Google Analytics and Twitter Flight School certifications supplement her ability to understand the social landscape and articulate ways to strengthen brands. However, the critical piece to this is a team's diversity of thought; it's where the magic for the client happens. Kate experienced this first hand as an account management intern this summer with Publicis Health where she and a team of eight competed in a program-wide campaign creation for the Skin Cancer Foundation. They did secondary research on skin cancer and previous health-related public service announcements, conducted primary research on young adults' perceptions of skin cancer, collaborated with Digitas Health creative directors to find a clear message in the data, and created a campaign from scratch to present to executives at the Skin Cancer Foundation, Publicis Health and Bayer. She contributed heavily to the team in social strategy: Which platforms would be the most effective? Who is the target audience the Skin Cancer Foundation needs to reach? What media will drive the highest engagement for the client? The experience brought the classroom to life -- she started to understand the importance of not only knowing what the data means but making it worthwhile to those invested in it.
4. This is her dream internship
Buzzfeed is a conduit for news, pop culture, and media. From its conception, it has altered the way people consume media, brands reach consumers, and users set platform standards. And it does it with an innovative and energetic spirit while embodying inclusiveness and an understanding of its audience. She would love to be given the chance to give to Buzzfeed what Buzzfeed has given her with that same drive and curiosity.
She's also THAT friend who is always sending you Buzzfeed articles...
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