Sometimes All It Takes Is A Simple Question

Hi! I am happy you landed on my blog post, and I hope the experiences I am about to share will entice you to look further into the growing agency looking to make an impact in the healthcare marketing space and elevate healthcare challenger brands to overcome more powerful competitors, market limitations, and internal obstacles to achieve their full potential. 

My name is Cierra Copeland, senior graduating this coming May, from the Klein College of Media and Communication with my degree in Advertising with a concentration in Account Planning. I have thought long and hard about what I would like to pursue after college, and I’ve got nothin’. But spending both fall and spring semesters at Elevate Healthcare agency has put me on my way to a future in advertising. Had I known I was about to land an internship so easily, I would have stressed less about it the semester before my first day. During spring semester 2021, I took a pharmaceutical advertising course with Professor Donald Phillips out of pure curiosity. I first majored in biochemistry premed, switching to neuroscience to later find myself in advertising. Clearly my path took a turn, and I would say for the better, deep down I couldn’t resist my urge to get back into the medical field some kind of way. Why not mix the two, right? Well, after a lovely visit from co-founder of Elevate HC, Lorna Weir and VP of Client Delivery, Erin Hlivia, visited my class to talk Elevate and common practices within the pharmaceutical and medical devices industry. Throughout their presentation, I really found myself leaning in, wanting more, and listening closely to what we were discussing. I raised my hand to ask a question, and whatever question I asked changed my trajectory for the better. Later that day, I reached out to Lisa Tamborello, Chief Talent Office, to ask for an informational interview, Luckily, I did, because she was excited to hear from me, as she was planning on reaching out herself. She informed me that Lorna and Erin were so impressed by my participation and question, that there was no doubt they wanted me to intern at Elevate. 

This was the start of something new and one great experience. When entering Elevate, I wanted to experience an area had never experienced before, but had interest in, project management. As mentioned above, I have changed my major a few time, so it’s nothing new to think I want all the experience and practice possible before starting my career. As the project manager, I got to see how an agency operates, what drives them, and how workflows throughout the agency; think ideation, through planning, through execution. I loved being at a smaller agency because I was able to work closely with people and learn people’s names outside of my immediate team. This was unlike other internships I’ve heard about before. They were extremely flexible and seemed to cater to my needs. I learned how to create action project plans, be the head of a team, direct the workflow of the agency, and of course dabble in the other departments of the agency. For the duration of that semester, I was tasked to research and develop a rabies awareness campaign in front of the entire agency alongside a medical copy intern named Thomas. We truly rocked that presentation. He handled the heavy medical jargon and research, while I drafted a complete project plan, created a tactical campaign plan, and visible agency timeline. While this project was completely unbranded, people from the agency informed us that they have a rabies client that they would present out work to, and likely use some of the tactics and materials we presented. The fun doesn’t stop there. 

This semester I find myself still at Elevate but in different role, account management. In this current role, I work closely with the account teams to present new brand initiates with clients, participate in client revision processes, and even brainstorm new ideas for campaigns and logo options. I’ve only sat in this seat for a few weeks now, but I gotta say, I am having fun. I am applying everything learned from classes in the real world, and it comforting to know they trust me. I seem to impress the team everyday with the knowledge I’ve acquired from Temple and how I put my creative and logical brain to use. 

To conclude, this experience was more than I thought it would be. Pharma isn’t so bad, and from what I can tell there are some fun creative liberties clients are allowing us to make.  If you are need of an internship or just want to work on subjects that changes lives, I’d give Elevate a shot. They are welcoming, hard-working, and professional.