Article

Intern Innovators

By Mary Auestad Arnold

2 minutes

We're sadly saying good bye to three summer interns

As this issue goes to press, we’re sadly saying good bye to three summer interns who have made important contributions and lasting impressions while working in CUES’ publications and marketing departments this summer.

For example, Video Intern Sylvan Gu, who’s entering New York University as a film student this fall, has helped us augment our editorial content with video clips, starting with this issue.

Creating bonus coverage for “When Directors Step Down,” p. 46, Sylvan filmed author Michael Hudson, Ph.D., sharing ways credit unions can retain the knowledge of veteran directors before they leave the board, to keep their institutional knowledge at the credit union’s disposal. “Don’t let them disappear. Put them in a role where they’re mentoring other people,” for instance, suggests Hudson, CEO of creditunionstrategy.com, in the video at cues.org/0914stepdown.

I think you’ll be as impressed as I am at Sylvan’s skill level. A video “native,” he took his first class in middle school. By hiring him as an intern this summer, we were able to leapfrog our video abilities—and elevate our content—more expediently than sending a CUES editor to video training. At the same time, Sylvan learned about the process of producing a video in a corporate setting under the direction of Senior Editor Theresa Witham.

He also teamed up with Editorial Intern Kait Vosswinkel, newly hired digital editor for Wisconsin Public Television, to develop an article/video package about Project Teen Money, a new financial literacy challenge sponsored locally by $2 billion Summit Credit Union. Check it out at cues.org/091714teenmoney. Kait, under the direction of Senior Editor Lisa Hochgraf, also has a byline on p. 10.

On the digital media side, we were pleased to have Marketing Intern Darrius Simons, a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater senior, as part of our social media team this summer. Not only did he handle daily Facebook posts, but he also helped implement LiveChat directly from our Facebook page. Talk to us from www.facebook.com/therealcues!

Bottom line: The beauty of well-planned internships is that the employer learns just as much—or is able to do just as many new things—as the interns.

Mary Auestad Arnold
Editor and Publisher

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