Strategic Communications Student Intern

Department Overview:

This position is a part of the Office of the Associate Vice Chancellor department at UW–Madison’s Facilities Planning & Management Division (FP&M). The division consists of over 1,300 staff that build, maintain and operate the physical environment of the UW–Madison campus in support of the university's education, research and outreach activities.
While supporting a more sustainable campus, the FP&M coordinates campus planning and renovation, provides services for commuters in getting to and around campus, ensures health and safety, performs safety consults for laboratory researchers, cleans, completes maintenance and repair activities for historic buildings and integrates natural spaces as a part of everyday campus life.
The FP&M communications and marketing group simplifies messaging, creates compelling visuals and delivers strategies to connect with FP&M's core audiences in an impactful way.

Anticipated Start Date:

February 2025

Anticipated End Date (If Applicable):

 

Remote Work Eligibility Detail:

Partially Remote

 

Anticipated Hours Per Week:

Minimum: 10 Maximum: 20

Schedule:

The student intern’s work schedule will be set for each semester depending on availability around their classes. Hours worked will occur between 8:30 am – 5:30 pm, Monday – Friday.

Salary/Wage Range/Lump Sum:

Minimum: $15.00 Maximum: 

Number of Positions:

1

Qualifications:

The ideal candidate will:
• be capable of playing a key role in a recurring editorial cycle
• have a sense for layouts and an eye for elements of good design
• be a Communication Arts, Marketing, Journalism, Media, Business, Graphic Design major (or intended), or a related area of study; or have equivalent industry experience or coursework
• possess excellent attention to detail and a knack for finding answers
• be a self-starter who takes initiative and can work independently
• function well as part of and in support of a small, dynamic team
• have top-notch grammar and proofreading skills
• demonstrate a strong writing background and/or coursework
• have copywriting experience from editorial, advertising, newsletters, mass email or technical
• be able to work on-campus at 21 N Park St. with the team for one or more shift per week, with the option to choose to work from home or at the office at other times of the week

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

• Ability to meet deadlines and work independently
• Organizing skills
• Self-starter
• Responsive
• Collaborative problem-solving abilities
• Learning mindset; adaptable to new systems and workflows
• An eye for accuracy, precision, and consistency in content
• Communicating effectively in-person, in meetings or calls, and via email
• Excellent interpersonal skills, a strong people focus
• Managing time, schedule and calendar (Microsoft Outlook, etc.)
Optional, good-to-have:
• Enjoys refining the details
• Basic HTML
• Creating mobile-responsive emails
• Plain language writing practices
• Graphic design using Adobe InDesign and/or Adobe Illustrator. Ability to edit or create flyers, signage, or digital assets
• Interviewing subjects for human interest-related published work

Position Summary/Job Duties:

Get career-building time in editing, writing, communicating, curating and designing content as an important member of our small team! Hone your existing skills and contribute to collaborative production processes alongside marketing, communications, design, and facilities professionals.

As part of a hybrid team (on-campus and work-from-home), the student intern will play a key role in a recurring editorial cycle. They’ll write, design and publish content for websites, emails and print media as a part of internal and external marketing and communications campaigns.

As a strategic communications student intern at FP&M you will be supported in the pursuit of achieving a reasonable balance between work duties and your academic courses:
• 10 – 15 hours of work per week during the regular fall and spring semesters and
• 10 – 20 hours of work per week during summer recess (actual hours would depend on your availability and preference)
• Work with the hiring manager to establish feasible weekly hours and a schedule that works with your classes and other interns’ schedules.
• Be available to work at least 70% of weekly hours on Mondays, Tuesdays and/or Wednesdays.
• There is an opportunity for this position to be ongoing for as long as you are an enrolled student

Job Duties
• Receive complex information from multiple sources and track updates to ensure the most accurate and timely product/output
• Creatively and collaboratively solve problems to improve projects, processes or services
• Correspond with individuals from all walks of life with professionalism, confidence and a high degree of service
• Write, edit and review content that is tailored to a specified audience
• Hone, apply, and broaden your working knowledge of Adobe Creative Cloud apps and design principles
• Design and update printed material and web content
• Layout and coordinate HTML emails using MailChimp
• Write and publish employee-focused human-interest stories
• Organize data, contacts, and work collaboratively using established systems on cloud-based apps: Google Drive/Docs/Sheets and Microsoft Excel
• Research, rewrite and assemble email copy and website articles.
• Maintain website content using Content Management System (CMS)
• Handle and distribute printed materials in office
• Complete research and administrative tasks as assigned

Students with majors in/at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Communication Arts, Marketing, School of Business, College of Letters & Science at UW-Madison can also apply to earn internship credit(s) in conjunction with this role, via their respective School/College.

Required Application Materials:
Cover Letter and Resume
Copywriting Samples (2 original writing samples). Please include at least two samples of your original writing such as: webpage copy, email copy, flier copy, voiceover copy, an article, a press release, technical document or similar, preferably for different channels/audiences. We are looking for a little bit of your writing process: please share your rough draft and your final, edited/published version of each sample.

Optional Materials, if Available:
Design Samples (2 original design pieces)
If available, please include at least two originally designed pieces that you created, such as: fliers, brochures, web graphics, webpages, newsletter layouts, newspaper layouts, advertisements, signage, digital or print pieces, packaging or branded document layouts.

Physical Demands:

• Use of a PC computer/mouse/keyboard.
• Ability to work on-site at 21 N. Park St. for at least one day per week.
• Occasional travel to locations on campus to interview individuals for articles that you are writing.

Institutional Statements:

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement:

UW-Madison is an Equal Employment, Equal Access Employer committed to increasing the diversity of our workforce.

Institutional Statement on Diversity:

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background-people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.

For more information on diversity and inclusion on campus, please visit: diversity.wisc.edu

Accommodation Statement:

If you need to request an accommodation because of a disability, you can find information about how to make a request at the following website:https://employeedisabilities.wisc.edu/disability-accommodation-information-for-applicants/

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