On Your Mark
Lacing up with curiosity and clarity
The importance of real-world experience prior to graduating is a tale often told to college students. As summer approaches, it’s easy for many students to get caught up in the internship frenzy – scrolling LinkedIn, frantically searching for an opportunity that piques your interest while also providing something tangible for your resume. But what a lot of students forget is that an internship is just as much for you and your personal growth as it is for the company.
As juniors and seniors at Northwestern, we’ve been fortunate to gain hands-on experience through full-time internships at Morning Walk while continuing our studies. Our main takeaway? Internship experience is the perfect time to learn both soft and hard skills that go beyond the office, intertwining our academic experience with professional development through real-world career preparation.
But before you make it to a Morning Walk, it all starts with those first few baby steps.
Get Set…
Madison - Moving With Intention
As a junior majoring in journalism with a minor in Spanish and a certificate in integrated marketing & communications, I’ve been figuring out how to merge creativity with strategy in a way that feels authentic to me. One class I took this year focused on how psychological concepts shape marketing, like why scarcity drives urgency or how emotion influences behavior, and explored the ethical implications behind those tactics. Although a lot of it seemed obvious to me, it’s something I never paid attention to until it got into the spotlight (aka actually completing the class).
At Morning Walk, those concepts became real. I was trusted to contribute to ideas and brands, write copy that was playful but thoughtful, and sit in on conversations where creative decisions were always made with intention. I learned that good marketing doesn’t just move products, it moves people. Marketing is a part of everyone’s core memory.
I’m still early in my college journey, but this internship helped me walk with more direction. Like a nice morning walk, my head feels clearer. This journey is not just about where I’ll land, it’s about being mindful with each step I take. I don’t know where I’ll end up, but I know each task I do, big or small, is leading up to a future where I succeed.
Go!
Fiona - Ready to run toward whatever’s next
When I started at Morning Walk, I expected the typical internship experience: help out wherever needed, work on a few bigger projects, and maybe get a little closer to answering the big question of What To Do With My Life. What I didn’t expect was to gain such hands-on experience and a front-row look at what it means to be a Performance Branding Company, truly becoming part of the team.
On my very first day, my supervisor Jess gave me a list of people across the company to schedule coffee chats with. Not just peers or fellow interns, but everyone from both partners, Pat Goggin and Steve Simoncic, to VPs, directors, and managers. Despite their busy schedules and full plates, the leadership here still found it important to sit down with the 21-year-old intern to hear about my hopes and dreams and chat about the company. I gained so much valuable insight through these coffee chats, learned what a Performance Branding Ecosystem really means (check out CEO Pat Goggin’s blog if you’d like to find out too), and received some excellent advice on work, careers and life.
Over the past few months, I’ve definitely learned the technical side: writing press releases, monitoring media coverage, brainstorming social content, drafting influencer contracts and anything else a client may need from us. But my biggest takeaway has been cultural, understanding what it means to be part of a team that actually walks the walk.
When my grandmother passed rather suddenly just a few weeks into my internship, my team could not have been more accommodating and even sent flowers to my family on the day of her service. These kinds of gestures make a world of difference in difficult moments like that and reminded me that at Morning Walk the people don’t just talk about values, they live them.
This kind of experience is invaluable at the start of my career, as it teaches me how to recognize and build a team culture of care and empathy. As I prepare to graduate, I feel grateful to be leaving college with a real sense of what good work and good leadership look like. Wherever my finish line is, I know I’ll have the foundation I built at Morning Walk to thank for getting me there.
And the Walk Continues...
About Fiona Roach
Fiona joined the team in January as a Public Relations intern, where she assists with press relations, social media, and influencer collaborations. Previously, Fiona has worked in digital media for the Democratic National Convention Committee and The Chicago Council on Global Affairs. She is also a senior at Northwestern studying Journalism and International Studies and will graduate this June. When not working or studying, Fiona loves to travel, read, play pickle ball, and explore Chicago!
About Madison Morgan
Madison joined the team in April as a Copywriting intern, where she supports the creative team on projects across digital, video, social, and more. With prior internship experience, Madison has contributed to ad campaigns for national brands, creates content for Northwestern’s social media pages, and writes for on-campus journalism publications. She’s a junior at Northwestern studying Journalism, Spanish, and Intergrated Marketing & Communications. When she’s not working or studying, Madison enjoys trying new cafes, different yoga studios, and creative writing!
