With over 8,000 Grand Valley State University interns and 107 nominations for intern of the year, being recognized as Outstanding Intern of the Year at the ceremony on April 12 was a huge accomplishment for Caitlyn Albrant.

Albrant recently graduated with her degree in marketing and will continue to work with Serendipity Media, LLC as a marketing intern. Serendipity Media is a marketing firm and full-service media company based in Grand Rapids. In addition to specializing in eNewsletter and magazine publishing, Serendipity Media manages various social media platforms and websites.

The growth of the company sparked Albrant’s interest and prompted her to apply.

“I loved the fact that they were so very interested in adapting with the changes in the industry and in technology while still holding onto where they came from,” she said. “I wanted to work for a company that I knew wasn’t going to go stagnant, and I knew there was a ot of room for me to learn and grow as a marketing student.”

And grow she did. When it came time for companies to place their nominations for intern of the year, Lisa Young, the marketing director at Serendipity Media, knew Albrant would be the perfect pick. Young is Albrant’s supervisor and watched her work hard through her internship.

“Caitlyn is probably the hardest working intern I’ve ever had,” Young said. “Things that made her most valuable to me were her flexibility, she was really productive, she worked really fast and accurately and she learned really quickly.”

Albrant worked on a variety of tasks, all of which she completed in high quality, with enthusiasm and in a timely manner. She has made promotional videos, worked with email marketing currently sends out the daily eNewsletters to one of the publications and scheduled social media posts for the six brands under Serendipity.

“I have been able to dip my hands into a lot of different tasks that have allowed me to get out of my comfort zone (and) really build a skill set that will help me move forward in my future career,” she said. “The digital presence assessment alone has been an incredible experience and skill-builder for me. I was able to learn so many new things that have built my knowledge and interest in the world of websites and (search engine optimization).”

While humble in her acceptance of the award, Albrant was still excited to be recognized as the outstanding intern of the year at GVSU. She noted that all of the nominees deserved to be recognized as much as she did but that her willingness to learn something new could have been a large factor.

“I have taken on a lot of various tasks because they’ve all been new to me and have all been incredible opportunities for me to learn,” she said. “Not only that, but Serendipity and, more specifically my supervisor, have put a lot of trust in me to complete these opportunities.”