Intern Highlight: Allison Mellor brings SIMCenter's research to life through engaging feature articles & social media content

Allison Mellor studies communication at Ohio State and is a SIMCenter marketing intern whose duties include designing the layout of the SIMCenter's newsletter, managing the center’s social media, and writing feature articles. Her academic path first took shape in her junior year of high school, when an AP English project introduced her to the field. Having begun her college career at the University of Louisville, where she was recruited to the school's D1 rowing team, Allison eventually decided to return to her home state and attend The Ohio State University, partly due to the strength of the university's marketing and communications program. In addition to her main area of study, she also enjoys working with numbers and gained experience using Crimson Hexagon, Google Analytics, Numerator, and IRi, to name just a few. Allison put these skills to use through internships in both corporate and start-up settings, including the automotive, ad-tech, CPG, nonprofit, and academic sectors. In her own words, "The world truly is your oyster if you have a communications major."

            Among her extracurricular activities, Allison most values her involvement with the Ohio State chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA). It was through this organization that she made lasting friendships, learned about a variety career paths, and gained leadership experience as the chapter president. In her tenure as president, she is proud to have enhanced the member experience by building an online internship portal and streamlining processes for email communication and project management by implementing MailChimp and Asana. With all this under her belt, Allison can speak from experience when she offers the following lesson to her younger peers: "You're going to get so much more out of your education if you don't limit yourself to learning in the classroom."

            She also understands the importance of downtime. When she's not working, Allison enjoys baking, listening to podcasts, and practicing hot yoga. When working remotely, it can be difficult to find a proper balance between hobbies and responsibilities. For her part, Allison has found effective time management strategies in time blocking, taking breaks, and establishing a work mode. These methods have allowed her to increase her focus, but she admits she misses “spending time with people face-to-face." Hopefully, circumstances will allow for that by September, when she plans to move to Chicago for her first post-graduation job opportunity at a yearlong marketing rotation with Conversant.