Multiculturalism in Media
Three Texas Tech University College of Media & Communication students recently had the opportunity to live in New York City for a summer and gain valuable internship experience at the same time.
Henry Wilson, (BA Advertising, 2013), Jake Quintanilla (BA Media Strategies, 2015), and Laura Gonzalez, senior public relations major from Amarillo, Texas, all interned with the Multicultural Advertising Intern Program.
Maip provides a 10-week paid summer internship at member agencies of the american association of advertising agencies and has started the advertising careers of over 2,600 multicultural advertising professionals.
Wilson works at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness as a project coordinator. He was the first ever MAIP intern from Texas Tech University when he worked as a project management intern over the summer of 2013 in New York with Saatchi & Saatchi.
Wilson said the major difference between a MAIP internship and other internships is the amount of involvement MAIP interns have at the companies where they intern. Wilson said MAIP interns are often confused by other employees as full-time employees and there are real deadlines with real consequences, if those deadlines are not met.
“You feel like you are really working there,” Wilson said. “You are not just an intern. You are part of the team, and it’s nice to really be a part of something during an internship.”
Quintanilla currently serves as a student ambassador for the MAIP program. He worked as an account services and project management intern during the summer of 2014 at Ogilvy & Mather through the MAIP program.
“MAIP is an advertising internship program that focuses on multiculturalism,” Quintanilla said. “Right now, the advertising industry is really big about being diverse and promoting diversity within the industry. It is an internship program that finds talent throughout the country. This past year there were around 900 applicants and only 120 ended up being chosen for the program.”
Quintanilla said the applicants who were selected were placed at advertising agencies in New York, Chicago, Detroit, and one intern was even placed in Kansas City. Quintanilla said that intern worked on the Cartier account and had the opportunity to travel to France with his team.
Gonzalez interned with Osborn Barr during the summer of 2015. She said that she started with 12 weeks of “spring training,” where she watched seminars online on topics such as coding, storytelling, media, advertising and analytics.
Gonzalez worked in St. Louis, Mo., from June 1 to August 8, and then moved on to New York City from August 8 to August 14 for training. While in New York City, Gonzalez said she enjoyed participating in the Face of Talent Show, where she attended career seminars, résumé critique workshops, professional training workshops, and networking socials.
Rebecca Ortiz, assistant professor of advertising, said the MAIP application process is very selective and having three CoMC students participate in the program is a great accomplishment for the college. She said she originally met Wilson when he was a student in her Advertising Account Planning class.
“Henry was a great student,” Ortiz said. “He would sit in the front of the class and was always attentive and engaged. He was the kind of student that you hope to have in your class. He is also a personality, in a good way. It was hard not to know Henry because he was involved with the HUB and many other things in the college.”
While a student at Texas Tech, Wilson said he worked as a content manager at The Hub@TTU. He said he worked to improve freshmen retention by filming a series of interviews with professors called “Off The Wall” that allowed students to get to know the personalities of their professors. As for classes at Texas Tech, Wilson said Mass Communications Law was one of the most helpful for his career.
“I wish that I still had my Mass Communications Law textbook,” Wilson said. “That class really helped me out with what we can do or can’t do in advertising.”
Wilson said the MAIP program is also open to students outside of advertising who are interested in interning at an advertising agency. He encouraged students with any interest in advertising to apply, regardless of major.
“Just go for it and be as honest as possible,” Wilson said. “What really matters is your personality and if you have the drive to be in advertising. But MAIP does not only consider advertising majors. The internship allows students to learn about working at an advertising agency while accomplishing MAIP’s main goal of making the advertising field multicultural.”
Quintanilla agreed that those who are not advertising majors should not be discouraged from applying. He said marketing majors, electronic media majors, journalism majors and also theater majors participated in the program last summer.
“The theater majors were amazing at presentations,” Quintanilla said. “They knew how to make and present the best slideshows. The journalism majors were asking questions that no one else thought to ask during the research process. No matter what degree you have, you can help out.”
Ortiz said Quintanilla was in her first-year seminar class. Ortiz said she first met Quintanilla when Ann Rodriguez, a CoMC instructor who was Quintanilla’s mentor through Mentor Tech, introduced him to Ortiz.
“He ended up coming to talk to me and we just hit it off,” Ortiz said. “Just like Henry, he was a very attentive student in class. I would help Jake with any questions he had, and he still comes by my office about once a week just to check in and catch up.”
Quintanilla said the Philips Electronics account he worked on during his time at Ogilvy & Mather won an Effie Award, which honors effective marketing communications ideas. He said this success led to his team being referred to as the “dream team” and going from a 40-hour work week to working 60 hours a week, as they were assigned to also working on Ogilvy’s Coca-Cola account.
Quintanilla said projects he worked on during his internship are still being used today, and those advertisements are being shown across the nation. He also said some of his friends from the program are getting hired due to work accomplished during the MAIP program.
“The other day, I saw a Coca-Cola advertisement I worked on get used,” Quintanilla said. “I also saw my Philips Norelco advertisement get used. My friend sold his designs to Verizon, and Verizon’s marketing team is looking to hire him at Verizon.”
Ortiz said Quintanilla found his passion in college after transferring from South Plains College in Levelland, Texas. While his professors have inspired Quintanilla, Ortiz said all of his recent success has been due to his work ethic, and she sees a bright future ahead for Quintanilla.
“Jake is a transfer student,” Ortiz said. “Once he came to Tech, he really got involved and got to know his professors. He will tell you that his connection to his professors and classes has really helped build his self-confidence and reach the goals he wanted to reach. He is a real success story.”
(Preston Redden graduated in 2015 with a Master of Arts degree in Mass Communications and in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism.)