MMS Student Takes on Nike

Rising Junior Anna Jestin is spending her summer interning with Nike's marketing team in Los Angeles.

My name is Anna Power Jestin. I am a rising junior and international student from Paris, France. I am majoring in political science and International Comparative Studies (ICS) with a concentration on China and East Asia, and pursuing the MMS certificate. This summer I had the opportunity to take part in Duke in Greece, followed by a two-month internship at Nike, Inc. While the Nike internship is normally only open to juniors, I encourage any Duke student to ask if they can apply and “Just Do It”. For me, Nike’s internship process began when I received an email about an online information session, and was then able to access an online application link. Several months later I received an email asking me to interview with the Nike recruiter, which was followed by two other interviews.

I have been placed in a regional office in Los Angeles for the summer, as part of the Nike internship program, where I am part of the Nike Direct team for West Brand marketing. The internship starts with an orientation at the WHQ in Beaverton, Oregon. I am now on my 4th week in L.A. and have already been part of so many fun, interesting and challenging campaigns, events, trips, and daily missions. I have been working closely with my manager and director to organize events in the West, especially in Los Angeles, that enable us to work directly with our consumers to bring traffic back to the stores, providing the best products, innovation and experience for them. I have had the opportunity to create online events, contact partners, participate in the launch of a new Nike store in L.A., and work onsite for Nike during HoopFest, the biggest 3-on-3 basketball tournament in the world, in Spokane, WA. I have also met different teams, tracked information from our stores back to our offices, and much more. During my sophomore year at Duke I took Practical Financial Markets and Sports Finance which gave me a taste of the business aspect of sports, a subject that was quite new to me coming from France—even though sports have always been a huge part of my life and define who I am today. Working in marketing at Nike has definitely encouraged me to pursue as many MMS classes as possible during my remaining years at Duke, in marketing, management, entrepreneurship, and at different geographical levels: local, regional, global.

Though I have just started learning in a new corporate setting, doing an internship the summer of my sophomore year has given me a different taste of the business world than I had previously been exposed to back home. I look forward to bringing my experiences back to school to share with and learn from my peers studying MMS. In 3 short weeks, I have already learned an incredible amount about so many aspects, such as what comes into play when organizing sponsored events for retail clients. I am incredibly grateful to be part of this internship program and look forward to bringing my knowledge back to Duke.

Go Blue Devils and Just Do It.

 

Anna is a rising junior and is writing as part of our Summer Guest Blog series. We will be featuring students in MMS all summer as they travel on study abroad trips and internships. For updates on future students' experiences, follow us on Facebook and Twitter!