Three Hobart and William Smith Colleges students spent the summer at Reuters learning how marketing, advertising sales and client relationships support the news and information company’s business.
Isabella Hayes, Bauer Swift and Elizabeth Whitney, all members of the Class of 2027, worked with teams at the company’s Times Square headquarters. In a Nov. 6 HWS News article by Mary Stone, the students described how the internships helped them develop professional skills and reconsider what they want from their careers.
Learning the business behind the news
Hayes, a media and society major with experience in sports media, joined Reuters’ integrated marketing team. Her assignments included developing client presentations, research and case studies.
The opportunity began while she was studying abroad in Berlin. A professor nominated her, and Maribeth Shell of HWS Career Services helped her prepare for the interview.
Hayes told HWS that colleagues quickly made an unfamiliar workplace feel welcoming. The office also brought an unexpected encounter: Singer Boy George walked past her shortly before a meeting after she had learned he would be visiting.
“I was in a state of shock and just froze and stared at him,” Hayes recalled in the HWS article. “It was so awesome seeing someone who brought joy to my childhood and my family’s life standing right in front of me.”
Swift, a double major in economics and business management and entrepreneurship, worked in digital advertising sales. A member of Hobart’s hockey championship team, he learned how advertising campaigns are sold, managed and evaluated.
Using Salesforce and other industry software, Swift studied the performance indicators advertisers use to assess campaigns. He also worked with marketing, revenue operations and advertising operations teams, seeing how their responsibilities connect.
“This experience has been very helpful in getting a better picture of what sorts of things I may value in my career in the future,” Swift told HWS.
Alumni connections and professional relationships
Whitney, a double major in business management and sociology and a member of the William Smith rowing team, also worked in digital advertising sales. She conducted competitive market research, prepared presentations showing how clients’ advertisements appeared on Reuters’ website and supported the sales team’s meetings and daily operations.
The work strengthened her Excel, Salesforce and PowerPoint skills. It also gave her practice building professional relationships. A lunch with an advertising agency client, arranged by two HWS alumni at Reuters, stood out.
“That was the moment I felt like I actually stepped into the professional world,” Whitney told HWS.
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
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Explore this topic →The students’ alumni connections included Michael Conte, a 2016 graduate and Reuters senior account executive, and Kristian Hart, a 2013 graduate and executive director of financial services and enterprise advertising partnerships. Whitney credited the alumni and HWS Career Services with helping her connect with the company and prepare for the internship.
Conte interviewed Whitney for the position and discussed how his HWS experience helped prepare him for his career. Whitney said having an HWS community at Reuters gave her confidence as she entered the workplace.
Outside work, Whitney continued competitive rowing. She made a 90-minute round-trip commute to train at the New York Athletic Club and traveled to regattas in Michigan and Philadelphia.
Watching colleagues balance their careers with their lives outside the office influenced her own goals. She described them to HWS as “People who work hard but also have lives and are happy,” adding, “That’s reshaping what I want in a career.”
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