The CCPD Summer Internship Stipend helps make hands-on, career-shaping experiences like this possible. In this post, a student reflects on capturing and producing content that connected audiences to live performances. The experience strengthened the students’ creative and professional skills while offering important clarity about the kind of work environment they hope to pursue after college.

“This summer, I had the opportunity to work as a Social Media Ambassador for the Bay View Music Festival in northern Michigan, a unique performing arts community that combines high-level music performance with a tight-knit, supportive culture. 

In this role, I was responsible for capturing photo and video content at concerts, masterclasses, and events, then editing and publishing them to our social media platforms. I also created promotional content, developed ideas for TikToks and Instagram Reels, and wrote captions tailored to our audience. Every day brought a new performance, a new challenge, and a chance to grow creatively. 

One of the most exciting parts was seeing the impact of my work in real time, watching our engagement grow and knowing that my content helped connect audiences to the festival’s mission. I also learned the less glamorous side of social media work: digging through hours of footage to find the perfect clip, managing time under pressure, and working without a rigid schedule. These experiences helped me realize that while I love creative work, I thrive best with more structure and flexibility, ideally in an office setting. 

This internship confirmed my passion for media and content creation and gave me valuable insights into what I want (and need) in a future workplace: a collaborative environment, space for creativity, and clear communication. 

I’m grateful to Bay View and Kalamazoo College’s CCPD for making this experience possible, it helped grow my creativity, professionalism and me as a person.” – Anastasia Okromchedlishvili ’28