CAPA Certificate of Excellence | Intern Nomination Award for Michael MacGinty and Team at MEANit Web Design Agency.
During 2021 we had the pleasure of having a number of Interns through the CAPA The Global Education Network CAPA.org Programs. All of these Interns were incredible young people. They self selected, self started, self motivated and self developed a new skillset over a 6 week summer placement – virtually abroad in Ireland.
Faced with the challenge of learning new skills, to use new digital tools and think creatively about Digital Marketing, they really discovered talents they already had and we simply nurtured. As a team we thoroughly enjoyed spending time with our Interns, setting challenges and being so impressed with the creativity.
Below we have some of their outgoing final words of advice to any incoming Interns.
Piper Martin Rising Junior at Pitt – Class of 2023
Michael,
I want to thank you again for giving me the opportunity to work at MEANit; it was an absolute pleasure. I truly have found a love for digital marketing here and am eager to continue my journey with it! If you ever find that you are overly busy and don’t have time to do little things such as edit blog posts or optimize images, I would be more than happy to help. It has been such an incredible experience working with you and the team, and I have learned so much in such a short amount of time. It was truly inspiring to see how dedicated you all are to your work.
My test Client has been quite sick over the past week, so we were unable to get much done. Once he is feeling better, however, we will start writing up a few blog posts regarding both his new service and general practices. I have added images, along with a few posts, and general updates to the Google My Business account over the course of the past few months. His email address now appears in the “Contact Us” page of his website.
Thank you for such kind words – I truly appreciate it.
I wish and the team all the best in your future endeavors. Thank you for everything!
Sincerely,
Piper Martin
CAPA Intern – Summer 2021
(Redacted to exclude some personal names and wonderful personal thanks for our team from a super Intern)
Piper Martin Sophmore at Pitt Class of 2023
Dear Intern,
Are you ready to begin your internship journey? I am writing to tell you that you have nothing to worry about because working at MEANit Web Design Agency was an absolute pleasure. From day one it was clear that the team was not only dedicated to their work, but also to my success as an intern.
As an upcoming Junior, I certainly felt a bit under skilled and inexperienced. With this, I was quite worried that my ability to perform certain tasks would be restricted. Fortunately, however, the team at MEANit saw my potential and challenged me. Ultimately, I learned each new skill with relative ease and was able to effectively implement them in my assigned projects. With time, I grew increasingly comfortable with the tools I was utilizing, which led me to develop confidence in my abilities. Not only was I able to make improvements on the company’s website, itself, but I was also able to improve the company’s general web presence. Even more, I thoroughly enjoyed the work I was doing. I truthfully had no idea what to expect, regarding my role as an intern, but I was ultimately satisfied with the responsibilities I faced.
While I don’t have much to note on MEANit’s performance as an internship host, as it was quite remarkable, I do have a few things that you, as a global intern, should consider. Since you will be working with a company based in a different country, it is indisputable that you will encounter cultural differences. The cultural difference that I, initially, found the most difficult to face is the indirect nature of communication in Ireland. As an intern from the United States, I would characterize much of their communication as implicit. In other words, I often had to “read between the lines” to fully grasp the meaning of their directions. As a global intern, it is important to accommodate this difference in order to successfully gain intercultural competence – the effort must come from you, not the team at MEANit. Having the ability to adapt to Ireland’s distinct way of communicating, is not only crucial to your success as an intern, but it is also critical to your personal and professional development.
Ultimately, my experience at MEANit promoted both personal and professional growth and helped me develop a greater passion for digital marketing. I sincerely hope this letter helps prepare you for your internship journey, as it serves as a concise outline of what you may encounter. If you experience challenges along the way, don’t be shy – ask for help! I wish you the best of luck and hope you enjoy your time at MEANit as much as I did.
Sincerely,
Piper Martin
CAPA Intern – Summer 2021
Sequoia Marriott, Rising Senior at Pitt – Class of 2022
Hello Michael,
I want to thank you for allowing me to intern with MEANit Web Design agency for the past 6 weeks. Coming into the internship, I had certain expectations of what I would be doing to contribute to MEANit. I knew that I would be learning more about digital marketing, and helping clients like Citadel Gymnastics to manage their web presence. However, I did not realize that I would be navigating WordPress and making actual adjustments to MEANit’s website. I also did not expect to be given access to personal and professional platforms like LinkedIn and GoogleMyBusiness early on. Learning to use and understand WordPress was probably my most difficult task. I think one of the cons of working remotely for me was that I wished I could have been in an office with the MEANit team to receive direct help when I ran into problems. Eventually, editing blogs and understanding how to improve the SEO and readability scores got way easier as I practiced. I am grateful that I got the opportunity to learn about WordPress utilizing a real professional website, rather than simply reading about it online.
It was also beneficial for me to work with MEANit because I gained more experience designing graphics. I was already proficient in Canva, however, when meeting with Fiona from Citadel Gymnastics, I knew that I would have to challenge myself to not only familiarize myself with her brand and company values but also synchronize my graphics with the designs on her new website. I was unaware that she wanted me to come up with marketing ideas and social media engagement posts for her company, but the experience helped me to get more creative and think strategically about what I create. Working with Fiona enabled me to become more confident in what I design, and it also helped me gain credibility.
My advice to the next intern(s) working with MEANit would be to:
1. Ask questions during the weekday. People are most active during the weekdays since the weekends are not reserved for work. Prepare for this ahead of time by making sure you reach out on a weekday or ask for advice during a meeting.
2. Make use of all your resources. MEANit provides you with instruction guides and gives you information on how to complete tasks during meetings. They also encourage you to conduct your own research on Google to learn more about web design and marketing. It will benefit you most in the end to use these resources
3. Take note of the work that you have completed each week. There are many tasks and ways to gain experience at MEANit. Make sure you are writing down all the tasks and skills you are learning. For example, if you work with one of MEANit’s clients, ask if you can use any work you have done for them as a case study.
Thank you so much for this internship opportunity! I appreciate the time you have spent with me, and how you have helped me to discover what I want to do with marketing in the future. After working with MEANit, I feel more confident in my digital marketing abilities, and I also have developed skills that will help me pursue creative marketing roles in art organizations.
I actually have been working with a theatre group in Pittsburgh, and they asked me to take a look at their WordPress website. I believe they need a visual page builder like DiviBuilder to make their platform easier to edit and more visually appealing. I wanted to see if you could take a quick look at their site to see if this would help improve the way it looks. Here is the link: (with Editor)
Thank you again for your graciousness in allowing me to intern at MEANit.
I wish you the best,
Sequoia Marriott Class of 2022 Pitt
CAPA Intern – Summer 2021
