CONWAY, Ark. (July
17, 2013) – Hendrix sophomore Katie Casper of Amherst, N.H., wants work experience
as she grapples with potential career paths and the ultimate selection of her
college major.
So Casper is
interning this summer with Symphony New Hampshire in Nashua, N.H. Her main
responsibilities are to market and assist in planning symphony events.
When Casper
arrived on site, she was told she would be marketing for the Garden Tour, but
she was given no specific instructions on how to do so. Casper and another intern
hit the ground running, exploring community bulletin boards, local figures,
social media, radio and television programs, and paper ads.
After targeting
garden centers and local florists, Casper witnessed how Symphony New Hampshire
makes a positive impact in the local community, she said.
While
interning, Casper experienced her first encounter with “guerrilla marketing,”
an untraditional means of advertising used to promote a product.
Casper created
a campaign where she utilized silk flowers and Garden Tour information,
distributing them in local libraries and restaurants.
“I have
always had a fascination with different forms of street art and to me,
guerrilla marketing is just another form of that,” said Casper.
This year,
sales from the Garden Tour almost doubled, raising more than $5,000 for the Symphony.
The money
raised from the Garden Tour goes directly to the Symphony, funding free public
concerts and (h)EARS, a classical music educational program for the local
public elementary school titled. The program puts on yearly concerts,
introducing elementary school students to various types of instruments and
musicians. The program has been credited with increasing the amount of students
who play in the school’s band by a drastic amount, Casper said.
Additionally, the fundraising
supplements the Symphony’s regular season concerts so that the Symphony can
provide a high-quality symphony orchestra to the community at a reduced rate.
Casper now plans on designing
her own interdisciplinary marketing major this year.
“After my internship experience,
I now know that marketing, especially marketing in the music industry, is
something I would like to pursue as a career path and I hope to further this
experience by completing a similar internship next summer.”
Founded in 1876, Hendrix College is a national leader in
engaged liberal arts and sciences education. For the fifth consecutive year,
Hendrix was named one of the country’s “Up and Coming” liberal arts colleges by
U.S. News and World Report. Hendrix
is featured in the 2012 edition of the Princeton Review as one of the country’s
best 377 colleges, the latest edition of
Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change
the Way You Think about Colleges,
Forbes magazine's annual
list of America's Top 650 Colleges, and the 2013 edition of the
Fiske Guide to Colleges. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist
Church since 1884. For more information, visit
www.hendrix.edu.