Internships

Students in the public relations major are required to complete an internship. 

Internships allow students to develop professional skills and network for career opportunities.  Academic credit is available for internships.   

Recently students have done internships with:

• ABC affiliate (WQAD)

• Archer Daniel Midlands

• Banks

• Cargill

• Chicago Shakespeare’s Theater at Navy Peer

• College Admissions

• Clock Tower Resort

• Disneyworld in Orlando (event management and vacation planning)

• Fire Safety Equipment Manufacturing

• Genesis Hospital (training and event planning)

• Kuk Sool Won School (martial arts school)

• Hispanic health services (Spanish language public relations position)

• Kane County Cougar’s (professional baseball)

• Law Firms

• Marketing and Marketing Consulting Firms

• Marketing and Project Development for a Movie
  Production Company

• NBC News (Chicago)

• NBC’s Today Show (NYC)

• Newspapers  (Daily Herald, The Paper, Atlas Review)

• Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board (NIFSAB)  

• Peg Paul & Associates (public relations agency)

• Public Relations Firms in Chicago and New York City

• Schools and Colleges

• Sony Records (Nashville)

• The Abbey (event planning and management)

• Trinity Hospital

• Wackerle Career Center

• Website Design

• West Suburban Human Society

• Women’s Career Network

Related Links

Internship Application

Internship Prospect Links

Recent Internship Gallery

2007-2008

Public Relations Interns

2007 - 2008

Coordinated and Supervised by Prof. Benita Dilley

Heather Prater (above)  with Lester Holt on the set of the Today Show .  Heather did her internship working as a production assistant with the show, and during her internship wrote, edited and produced her first "package" for air for NBC.  

Jill Springsteen worked at Sony records in Nashville for her internship.  Here she is with her fellow interns at the Sony Stardom concert.  Jill reports having had the opportunity to be on the inside and watch a large communication conglomeration take over another was an amazing business experience -- and she got to meet many of her favorite star recording artists!  Jill is the one in the center of the back row.  As you can tell, it was a huge concert -- bet those event planning skills came in handy for someone!

Heather Prater interviewed at NBC for her positions at the Today Show on an interview trip over spring break.  Jill Springsteen was also on the trip, and interviewed for a position doing public relations for Madison Square Garden and the New York Rangers.  Both were successful.  Heather's internship at the Today show is featured in the photo at the top of the page.  Jill opted not to go to New York, but took a position in Nashville working the music promotion for Sony records.  She is also featured in a photo above -- but this photo of then in their interview suits ready to take on NYC was just too good not to share.  Prater and Springsteen were accompanied to NYC by their faculty sponsors, Benita Dilley and Kelly Schultz, who had helped find potential internship posts and advised as the interns applied, interviewed and then selected internship offers that would go with their educational and career goals.

Jenna Buechel worked developing public relations and communication strategies for a major law firm. She organized golf tournaments and networking public relations events, as well as handled many daily communication tasks for the firm.  She also learned to master the daily commute to the loop from her home in the suburbs of Chicago.

Allyson Phillips at the Abbey – Above Allyson and her supervisor at The Abbey, Tim Heim The Abbey, overlooking the Mississippi river is a fully restored and converted convent that now is a luxury small hotel, and a much sought after site for weddings and corporate events.

Ashleigh Tweed organized events and helped develop a professional women’s career network for the Prairie Tech, a high technology consortium, where she was supervised by Linda Blaine (right).

Gianna Sagert, who had just returned from studying for a term in Spain, did an internship helping with Spanish language publications for the Hispanic community.  She worked on newsletters and publications and other activities,.  She worked with Linda Blaine, who has supervised many public relations and event planning interns.

Mindy Lents did her internship, and fulfilled a lifelong dream, by working for six months at the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, FL.  She served as an event manager and a vacation planner, and is ready to have Mickey Mouse as a permanent colleague in her future career plans.  Prof. Benita Dilley travelled to Orlando to do the official internship site visits, and to remind Mindy to come home to snowy cold Illinois for her final and triumphant senior semester at Monmouth College.

Rebekah McCombs did her internship in New York City on Park Avenue with M Booth and Associates.  She worked on developing campaigns for major products and organizations. On the left is Rebekah and her intern friends at the firm.  The center features the company logo of M Booth and Associates, recently named one of the top public relations firms in the country.  And on the right, Rebekah is doing a client pitch at her firm. 

Brooke Morgan did several internships.  Her most recent was with Bank Atlantic in Florida.  Previous she had done an internship with a professional baseball organization and with a newspaper.  

Kim Muys did her internship in planning and managing TECHFEST, an initiative of the West-Central Illinois Technology Source, working with professional and the event’s committee governance.

Pamela Steskal worked with the Department of Health and Human Services  She developed a campaign to recruit new foster parents, developed training and leadership events, and worked or producing a video for the Department.  Her supervisor is begging for more interns from Monmouth College.  

Lucinda Boyd-Ross worked for Trinity Hospital and learned how diverse the professional public relations position can be.  She wrote feature articles on health care topics, helped to manage the major golf tournament the hospital co-sponsors (The Quad Cities Open), helped manage the farmer’s market program and assisted in the office as it moved from  one building on the Trinity Hospital campus to another.

Kaitlyn Dane did her internship in Arlington Heights, IL for the Daily Herald.  In working with a major daily newspaper, Kaitlyn got experience in newspaper competitor research, targeted audience advertising. sales, marketing and contact management.

Eric Hoffer has done two internships, on the theme of fire.  Working in the Frankfort and Orland Park area, Eric has interned with the  Peg Paul & Associates Public Relations Firm and Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board (NIFSAB).  In his position, he managed public information and relations program for members of the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition, including working on grant writing and management to continue funding for work to educate the public, home, builders, and fire departments on the benefits of residential fire sprinklers. Managing project to create a virtual safety house that is interactive on a person's computer.  Managing a campaign with help numerous towns in northern Illinois in revising their town ordinances regarding fire sprinklers in homes.  When we get a client that wants to install fire sprinklers, we ask them to and help them hold open houses after the sprinklers have been fitted and before the walls are put up. Manage and perform public information presentations including the side-by-side burn cube, which is a simulation of two rooms situated next to each other in which one has sprinklers and the other does not that demonstrates the effectiveness of home sprinkler systems in fire.

Mickenzie Jones did her internship with Cargill.  Her work was with corporate communication, community and employee relations managing and planning the major corporate twentieth anniversary.  She planned created the Cargill “Community Toolkit,” a system of communication tools to facilitate communication between Cargill plants. corporate sites and their communities which will include media kits, meeting plans and  crisis management recommendations.  She managed the twenty year employee and corporate officer and executive photo shoots to acquire professional photos of Cargill executives and worked to create and execute an employee survey to chart attitudes and reactions to corporate and organizational culture against the variable of length of time of employment at Cargill.

Brittany Koritz has completed two internships, the ones most envied by the other public relations students at Monmouth College.  Brittany was a successful intern in professional baseball in her work for the Kane Country Cougars, where she worked with event planning and management with the fames, marketing, promotion and customer relations.  Last year, Brittany worked for the Clock Tower Resorts where she planned, managed and executed corporate meetings, conferences, weddings, and other events.  She also  managed “pop ups,"  or corporate, organizational and family events that had o be planned and executed within one week of first booking notice.

Visit us again soon to see more public relations internships in the our gallery!