The Summer I Found My Place at Green Loop
At the beginning of my internship with Green Loop, I experienced a lot of "firsts." My first internship. My first time working with a marketing agency. My first time working in a "grown up" office.
It's safe to say I was intimidated.
And yet, from the moment I walked in, I was met with warmth. I hadn't completed an ounce of work yet, and I already felt like a valued part of the team.
I had just finished my second year at New York University, studying Media, Culture, and Communication, with hopes of one day working in the entertainment industry doing arts and events marketing. But even with that general direction in mind, I wanted to learn about every corner of marketing. That turned out to be one of my most treasured parts of this summer. Green Loop didn't just let me explore, they handed me the map.
Always a player, never a benchwarmer
Going into my first internship, I had a lot of preconceived notions about what the next few months would look like. I'd be handed a stack of mindless tasks and become familiar with everyone's coffee order. And maybe, if I was lucky, I'd get to sit quietly in the corner of a meeting or two.
I braced myself for the bench.
Instead, Green Loop put me in the game on day one– and kept me there.
My myth was debunked within hours of my first morning, when I joined a call with Melanie and a prospective client. I watched her lead the meeting with a kind of graceful confidence I dream of achieving. A few weeks later, I was behind the scenes at WISH-TV with Melanie and Kelsey, supporting Benjamin Leslie as he promoted the Hollis Adams Mud Run on Life.Style.Live!
Those are two moments out of many. I never spent a day wondering whether I belonged in the room.
Promoting the Hollis Adams Mud Run at WISH-TV
Bringing ideas to life
Among the many clients I was lucky enough to work with, one experience stands out: Devour Indy.
Being part of the Devour Indy marketing team meant learning about a little bit of everything — digital content, influencer partnerships, newsletters, and all the pieces in between. It was a crash course in how many moving parts live inside one event, and how differently each one is handled.
I also got to watch a lot of smart people think out loud. Brainstorms at Green Loop are genuinely open in our regular Creative Block Buster sessions. Ideas get built upon instead of shot down, and collaboration from all people of all specialities is encouraged. I soon realized my own ideas were being treated the same way.
Part of the Green Loop team at Industrious
The people make the place
If I could take one thing with me from this summer, it's that.
Green Loop is a place that encourages confidence and celebrates everything worth celebrating. Watching this team work across so many industries, I got to see how carefully and graciously they treat their clients and each other. Everyone thinks freely. Everyone supports enthusiastically.
I noticed it in small ways more than big ones. The way a rough idea in a meeting got a "keep going" instead of a raised eyebrow. The way someone would stop what they were doing to explain the why behind a decision, not just the what.
I came in expecting to learn how an agency runs. I ended up learning something more useful: what it feels like when a workplace decides you're worth investing in, and how much more you want to give when it does.
Celebrating the last day of my summer internship
Looking ahead
After an incredible summer, I'm thrilled that my internship has been extended through the fall semester. I'm not ready to be done learning from this team, and I'm grateful I don't have to be.
Thank you, Melanie, and thank you to everyone at Green Loop for making my first internship one I'll be measuring every future job against. I’ll see you in September!
Emily Cromer
MARKETING INTERN