Meet Miami U

Alissa Cook spent her first night on Miami University’s campus when she was in high school. As part of the university’s Bridges program for prospective students, she got to experience life as a RedHawk firsthand, meeting future classmates and discovering the strong sense of community.

“It helped me get a better perspective and a more intimate experience when I was searching for colleges,” she says, reminiscing about how her journey began. She’s come a long way since then.

After graduating in 2020 with a B.A. in Communication Design — and minors in Architecture and Interior Studies and Interactive Media Studies — Alissa landed a job that blends her various skills. She works as the events and marketing manager at City Year Tulsa, an AmeriCorps program that serves underserved schools. She also has a successful career as a freelance designer.

How did she get prepared for all this rewarding work? In addition to the classes for her major and minors, Alissa gained essential skills in four different internships while she was at Miami.

Alissa Starts on the Road to Her Future

Her first internship was at Grandin Road, a furniture catalog company in West Chester, Ohio. Before she started, she was a little nervous about taking that first step into the professional design world. But she found herself in a supportive environment and quickly learned through hands-on experience. Not only did she begin to master InDesign, the commonly used graphic design software — she realized she could learn quickly, problem solve, and trust her own abilities.

Alissa Takes a Jump and Lands Internship

After gaining confidence at Grandin Road, Alissa was ready for a bigger challenge. She landed her next internship through Miami’s Altman Summer Scholars program, and she found herself in an exciting, entrepreneurial bootcamp. At JUMPER Premium Threads, a Cincinnati-based startup specializing in socks and performance gear, Alissa worked on design schematics, giving her a different kind of firsthand technical experience. Her creative work even helped with the company’s Kickstarter campaign, which raised over $100,000!

She enjoyed the larger responsibilities, and she took comfort in knowing she wasn’t alone. Throughout the Altman program, she received valuable guidance from Mark Lacker, Altman associate clinical professor of Entrepreneurship — not only about her present, but also about her future.

“He helped me — and that program helped me — talk about my experience in a way that really helped propel stuff forward,” she says. After all, she was no longer just learning design; she was becoming a designer.

Alissa Works Toward Her Goals

Then came Alissa’s biggest leap yet. She went from helping at a startup to interning for a major corporation, Bath & Body Works. While the environment was more fast-paced at her third internship, she now had plenty of experience to thrive. She was honored to be on their concept team, exploring industry trends to help sell real-world products.

“That was a really cool, different experience,” she says. “I liked taking each internship to figure out what I learned that was different from my previous ones.”

At this point, she had the skills, she had the confidence, and she had the experience working for companies of any size. What was next to practice? How to juggle multiple projects at once.

Alissa Relays Her Internship Knowledge To Other Students

That’s exactly what she learned to do at her fourth internship at Relay Design Co. Even though she worked remotely, she got to experience the fast-paced life inside a design agency. Her growth was remarkable — just a few years earlier, she was getting help learning InDesign from her mentors at Grandin Road. And here she was, tackling multiple jobs for a professional design agency, and all from her own home.

Through all four of these valuable experiences, Alissa broadened her professional network, learned new skills, and gained confidence to soar after graduation. And she didn’t keep her expertise to herself. She was able to share her insights with her classmates at Miami, where her coursework was enhanced by her professional experience. In Alissa’s own words:

“Whether it was working at a startup where I was one of three employees or for a large corporation where I was one of hundreds, I learned on the job from skilled professionals and brought my learning back to the classroom with my peers.”

Learn more about internship opportunities at Miami University.