Laura Mahnke
Responsibilities
My responsibilities for this internship have included setting up for events, working actual events, shadowing event planners on the day of a wedding and special event, knowing what specific things an event needs (coffee, buffet, soda, ect), serving events, and knowing everything about the event that is being held. You also will have to know how to read a BEO and have an outgoing personality as you will be interacting with clients and guests very often.
Accomplishments
My greatest accomplishment from this experience has been finishing my passport program. The Marcus Corporation gives its interns the opportunity to complete a program called the passport program. The passport program is a list of tasks that you can choose to do to help you learn more and gain more experiences within the events and hospitality industry. Some of the tasks include: Shadowing a department of your choice, writing a report about what you would add or change to the Grand Geneva Resort, selecting a mentor to give you job advice and tips, attending meetings, and visiting a competitor hotel or restaurant. If you successfuly complete the program they give you a money reward. That way it is another incentive to finish as well as all the knowledge you would gain.
What advice would you give?
My advice would be to look for an internship on something you are possibly thinking about working in the future. For example if you wanted to be a wedding planner try to find an internship that focuses on weddings because shadowing/ working with weddings will help you learn if that's the specialty you would want to work in for future job opportunities.