Student Matt Sunthimer ’22, of McKinney, Texas, is interning this summer at MindHandle, an advertising agency in Dallas. Sunthimer, a strategic communication major with minors in studio art and general business, works as a content creator at the agency. He captures photos and videos at client shoots and even creates GIFs. His schedule is fluid, giving him the opportunity to attend staff meetings, many of which are on Zoom, and he travels to the office once a week. He says his time with the company has been worthwhile.
“So far the culture there has been amazing. It really does feel like a family atmosphere. What I’ve appreciated the most about it is that they treat me like an employee. I don’t feel like an intern or a subordinate. They give me real tasks,” he said.
He says he is so thankful for this paid internship opportunity, because he said the road getting there was tough. Throughout the spring semester, Sunthimer spent a lot of time updating his LinkedIn profile, networking with others and applying to 30-40 internships; yet, he never heard back from anyone. He felt very anxious at the end of the semester, unsure of what to do. Much to his surprise, Aaron Harris, Schieffer College’s career consultant, sent Sunthimer an email with several applications for internships, and MindHandle was on the list. He applied, and a few days later, received a call from the chief creative officer. They visited over the phone, and moments later, Sunthimer received an offer.
Sunthimer (far right) works on set at a client shoot hosted by MindHandle, the agency he is interning at this summer.
To other Schieffer students applying to internships, Sunthimer has some words of encouragement and gratitude: “If you just keep plugging away at it, something eventually will happen. I have so much thanks for Aaron just for sending out that short list in that email because if he wouldn’t have, there’s a really good chance I wouldn’t have even know about this opportunity. So I have to give a lot of thanks and credit to Aaron for helping me out with that.”
The agency’s focus is “magnetic storytelling,” and Sunthimer is enjoying learning from the talented people he works with. “The cool thing about it is it’s composed of a lot of industry veterans. A lot of the workers and my bosses have worked at the Richards Group, The Marketing Arm, TracyLocke. And so they bring a lot of expertise from the experiences that they’ve gathered to the smaller agency,” Sunthimer said.
In the fall semester, Sunthimer will serve as creative director for Roxo, the Schieffer College’s student-run advertising and public relations agency.