Amanda Ronan, Auburn Media Relations Intern
Seven returning members of the Auburn equestrian team had eventful summers outside away from competition with internships that gave them a head start to their professional life after college.
Senior Kennedy Knapic worked in the Poultry Science Research Department under Dr. Jessica Starkey and Dr. Charles Starkey. She was originally looking for an opportunity that would expand her horizons on various internships that were available for her pursue professions using her Animal Science degree.
Knapic acquired a lot of research experience while working closely with a species she was not familiar with - chickens. Overall, Knapic gained knowledge in how an experiment is designed, how to properly feed and care for broilers, how to properly record data, how a broiler chicken processing plant runs, and many other skills that could be beneficial towards her future in the Animal Science field.
Senior Betsy Brown also stayed on the Plains, working in the Auburn Veterinary School. The Waxhaw, N.C., product spent her time as an undergraduate researcher with the College of Agriculture with Dr. Moisa that went through August 10.
Becky Kozma, a junior from Streamwood, Ill., helped around the Auburn Athletics business office, with a focus in accounting working primarily under Holly Pole. She assisted with basic tasks such as filing vender vouchers as well as travel vouchers from coaches and administration, updating purchase orders on the Excel spreadsheets for each sport and department covered by athletics and updating all the housing and boarding expenses for each sport.
Kozma had great hands on experience on the other side of athletics that she is used to. Her hands on experience of what goes on behind the scenes in college athletics solidified her interests in working in the field.
Senior Ali Fratessa put her marketing degree to use as she spent the summer working at the Crossroads at Cedarwood, LLC, in Franklin, Texas. Her internship included creating social media, advertising and marking campaigns as well as developing resident engagement and retention programs. She also served as the Marketing and Leasing Coordinator. Her efforts were instrumental in raising the occupancy rate from 80.56% to 97.22% by the end of July.
Casey Schmitz, a senior from Ashburn, Va., interned with the eBay on-site marketing team in the Prague office. Schmitz was mainly responsible for the analysis of the performance of promotions that eBay held. She would look at raw data that reported performance of the promotions and analyze the numbers into more digestible metrics, so that she could put together a report to help make suggestions to streamline campaign efforts.
Sophomore Emam Crosbie also spent her summer in Europe, working with European Horse Imports in Lier, Belgium. She traveled all over the country looking for horses for clients, expanding her knowledge of the sport and her major through the internship. With ESHI, she gained a lot of insight into how international horse sales work, whether that was marketing to the logistics of preparing them to fly overseas.
While senior Emma Paul did not have an internship this summer, she went on a two-week trip to Tanzania for medical missions. She was not only exposed to a completely new culture, but she was able to gain experience in many differing areas of healthcare. She had a different responsibility everyday as part of the medical staff and was able to shadow a doctor.
Overall, after Paul's time spent in Tanzania, her aspirations of working in the medical field grew to be even bigger.