Intern? No.
Mentee? Yes.
As a senior at Olentangy Liberty High School, I’ve officially become a mentee. A mentee is a person who is advised, trained, or counseled by a mentor. This year I have the opportunity to find three placements of my choice, at companies that benefit my career choice in the future. At first, the idea of learning the ropes of a real live career was intimidating. But hey…we’re here to decide our futures…right? Now is the time to figure out my true calling (well, maybe not quite yet!) and I was eager to get started.
Choosing a placement was hard because I don’t know exactly what I want to do in the future. At our chosen companies, we’re supposed to shadow our mentor, and learn the basics of their everyday lives working within their fields. So how do I choose a field out of what seems like millions of options? Well, I do that I love being creative. My whole life I’ve had a creative side, always wanting to draw and design something new. That’s when I found Ron Foth Advertising here in Columbus. I reached out to Mike Foth, a Senior Vice President there, explaining the basics of the class and the requirements I needed. Mike was happy to help and agreed to take me on as a mentee!
Walking in, I was nervous. Nervous I possibly wouldn’t like my placement, my communication would fail, or the employees wouldn’t like me. But I knew this mindset wouldn’t help me succeed. So I turned to a positive mindset, and began to get excited about this new opportunity. With my eager new attitude, I pushed my foot through the doors of Ron Foth Advertising.
My experience at RFA has been encouraging and inspiring. As soon as I walk into the building the energy here is always high and the people are very personable. Mike always makes me feel welcome, and pushes others to help make my experience worthwhile. Every week I’ve had the opportunity to grow as a learner and grasp the art of advertising. Coming here, I wasn’t expecting to be as engaged within their projects, to the point where I was able to join the shoot of a commercial! I’ve had the privilege of traveling throughout each department, spending time with different employees as they teach me their everyday careers/passions.
My opportunities here have been endless as they have media, creative, accounting, and account services departments. I’m happy to say each employee’s goal, especially my mentor Mike, was to make my time here engaging and beneficial. Everyone was always asking what I wanted to do, and continued to focus on making my time here rewarding. I loved experiencing first hand the creation of ads, where they start when creating an ad, and the process of finalizing it. I learned that this business can be hard, and you may not always get what you want. The process can be tiring, but it’s all about working hard to get the best results in the end.
After my 9 weeks here, I’ve come to the realization that advertising could be an option for my future occupation. My placement here was valuable, and I’ll always recommend RFA for future mentorship students.
Thank you to the Ron Foth team, and my awesome mentor Mike Foth!
