By Thomas (Tommy) Nielson, Business Administration major

I am currently working as a marketing intern with the YMCA. My role primarily focuses on digital marketing, aiming to improve the general health of our website and boost our SEO (search engine optimization) performance.

My main job during this internship has been to rebuild the current website, expand the existing site, and implement uniform changes across the whole platform. I have found this internship incredibly valuable. It has cemented my desire to work in marketing after completing my education, helped me learn valuable skills, and allowed me to make important connections.

Something I am proud of regarding this internship has been my ability to prove that I am a disciplined employee who can be trusted to think of and implement innovative ideas. For example, after researching ways to improve the website, I identified an opportunity to restructure our page layout by implementing something called Pillar Pages. I presented this idea to my supervisor. She was impressed by my idea and gave me the go-ahead to jump into the project, allowing me the opportunity to lead and independently create these pages for our website.

I believe this experience will benefit me in the future, especially as there are discussions about keeping me employed after the internship. If that comes to fruition, it will give me a jump-start on my career.

I would absolutely recommend GCC to future students; in fact, I do it all the time. GCC has changed my life in so many ways, beyond just employment. It has provided me the opportunity to grow as a person and as a student, and it has provided me with a community that has become very important to me. I have great respect and admiration for this institution. In many ways, being a student here has completely transformed my life.