Meet Megan our Marketing Department Intern

 “The ideal intern is committed, creative, organized, ambitious, independent, and able to crack a smile, whether meeting a celebrity or folding socks. - Emily Weiss

Megan Myers – a senior from Whitesboro and a OHM BOCES Regional Program for Excellence student – worked alongside our Marketing Department this school year. She was lovingly called “Megan Thee Intern” (IYKYK) and contributed greatly to our creative work and team vibe with her stellar graphic design skills and sharp sense of humor.

During her time with us, she was able to contribute design to many holiday logos for the Utica Children’s Museum, work with video, learn about the creative process, shadow the design team and take part in brainstorming sessions (a department favorite!) 

She shared her thoughts on her experience and her plans for the future with us!

Born a Creative

As with so many creative people, Megan’s love of art began as soon as she could pick up a crayon, flying through coloring books and “drawing” whenever she could. As she got older, she knew she wanted to do something arts-related for a career and around the time she was a sophomore, her mom suggested that she look into graphic design, as it was a more profitable way to do art. (Her mother was very familiar with BOCES programs as she holds multiple certifications from them - including one in graphic design!) When the time came, Meghan was ready to take the multimedia design class. 

So Much Learning Packed Into One Class

She enjoyed that this program gave her a broad overview of everything - photo editing, video work, animation, illustrations and more. One of her favorite parts of the program is that she gets to use all of the Adobe programs even outside of class. Any creative knows this is a huge advantage. It gave her a chance to work on things when she's feeling creative and not just blocked into certain time frames.

Never Be Scared of Something That Hasn’t Happened Yet

Looking back, she would tell her day-one-self to not be so scared of the internship with us. She was nervous in the parking lot about meeting us, but found the courage to walk through the doors and after months of interning with us and becoming part of the team, she wished she could have stayed longer!

Megan was glad to get the real world experience of being in an office to see first hand how an office culture works. She came with some pretty solid technical skills, but really enjoyed seeing how all the pieces of a project worked together in an actual professional setting. 

ICAN’s Marketing Department helps out tremendously with the Utica Children’s Museum work, which has a brand identity system that was made by students and local arts professionals, and is perfectly poised to have other design students help bring it more and more to life. The most exciting part for Megan wasn’t just the overall experience of the internship, it's that her artwork was actually posted and used by the team! She created a series of holiday logos for the museum and she created custom illustrations that will be used in the future!

She’s also taking with her on her creative journey the favorite motto of our Marketing Manager, Michelle, to “Make Dope Stuff!”, along with her teacher’s best advice: “If you aren’t failing, you’re doing something wrong.” To succeed you have to take the chances and failure is part of the process and comes with the lessons that you will keep with you.

Where She is Headed

With all of these amazing skills and experience already under her belt (including competing with kids from all over New York State in a skills competition) she is headed to Mohawk Valley Community College for Video Game Development next. She doesn’t want to stop there though -  it's just the first thing she wants to learn. Coming from a family of lifelong learners she wants to get experience in and try so many things, including being an EMT at some point, maybe working with special needs children and would love to work with rescued animals on a large scale. She’ll start out with her life's passion first though… to create!

With a long career in front of her, Megan is well on her way to ensure that ART will stay a big part of her life and she is looking forward to being able to show the people who have told her you can’t make money on art that you certainly can! 

From the Marketing Department

Here at the Marketing Department, we were lucky to have such a young creative bring some fresh ideas and perspective. Megan’s little quips and surprising comebacks had us all laughing and she fit right in! We love getting to share our knowledge and help give future creatives the opportunity to see what a job in art can be like. We all wish Megan the best of luck on her journey and we can’t wait to see what she creates.

About the Oneida Herkimer Madison BOCES Regional Program for Excellence

The BOCES RPE program is a longstanding program that gives local students an incredible opportunity to intern and get hands-on experience within a diverse array of companies and industries. Students spend at least 72-75 hours in a work setting, completing an internship with respected professionals as mentors. The school year program puts students in internships for three hours, one day per week for 24 weeks from October through April. Learn more about this amazing program!