WVU Dining comprises a team of managers, chefs, food service workers and student workers to provide a dynamic dining experience for the campus community. Another part of that dining team is the student interns, who, through Sodexo, get on-the-job experience in marketing.
WVU Dining Director of Marketing Cary Walters works with a team of eight student interns, who work on multiple teams.
The social media team, led by Angelina McGuire, also includes Jenna Cummins and Isabella Blackshear. The team has duties including managing the social media calendar, promoting events and theme meals, and issuing reminders through Facebook and Instagram.
The photo/video team, led by Ayden Norcross with teammates McGuire and Ethan Jorge, is responsible for getting and editing photos and footage from dining events and initiatives across campus.
Cummins heads up the design/writing team, working with Jorge, Blackshear and Izzy Barganski on press releases, reports and other copy needed for promotions.
A street team that is responsible for various duties including producing content for social media, connecting with students on campus and updating dining hall monitors, is led by Barganski with Norcross.
McGuire is an advertising major from New Jersey. While she’s finishing up her senior year, she is also the president of the Residence Hall Association.
“Being the president of the Residence Hall Association, I do a lot of work with first-year students, and those eating at WVU dining halls are primarily first-year students,” McGuire said, adding that since she also lives on campus, she still has a meal plan and dines regularly on campus. When she saw an opening for internships with the WVU Dining team, she knew she was a perfect fit.
“It coincides a lot with the work I do with freshmen, because they’re so connected to the dining halls: when they’re outside of their dorms, the freshmen are all going to be in the dining halls,” she said.
Additionally, having a background of five-years’ experience working for a Chick-fil-A allows McGuire to be knowledgeable about food service.
McGuire was one of the first interns hired at the start of Sodexo’s marketing internship program at WVU. As the department grew with the addition of Walters, McGuire said the program began to take shape, and interns were able to identify their areas of focus.
“I picked social media, because that’s what’s most interesting to me,” she said, adding with a laugh: “I am the stereotypical girl on my phone all day, so when there’s any sort of trend going on, I know about it.”
To plan her posts, McGuire said she follows accounts of other WVU departments, as well as other Sodexo university dining accounts to see what’s going on. She also keeps track of upcoming events such as national food days to see how the department can put a fun spin on it on campus.
One of her fondest moments is when she first got access to be able to post on WVU Dining’s social media pages.
“Our first big event was the Gold & Blue Bash, that was my favorite,” McGuire said. “I could finally take photos and videos and post them on our pages. That was the best day.”
McGuire has enjoyed her time at WVU learning and growing in the communications field.
I love WVU; I would not have my major and would not have any of the experiences I have in that field without WVU.
She’ll continue growing her experience next year as she takes on a communications role with Statler College while she earns her master’s in Integrated Marketing Communications, and she knows after she graduates, her Sodexo internship has prepared her for a career.
“I would never have gotten the hands-on experience of running a social media account in real time,” McGuire said. “We can only simulate it in class, but you don’t realize what it takes until you’re actually doing it. There’s so many little, tiny things that can go wrong, you have to be able to respond and adapt.”
Working with the team of interns has also built up her skills in collaboration.
“Working together as team, you get a lot of teamwork experience,” she said.
You have to learn how to give and take with your peers and higher-ups. That’s been also really helpful.
On McGuire’s team is Blackshear, a freshman Sports and Adventure Media major from Martinsburg, W.Va. When she toured WVU as an incoming student, she stopped at a WVU Dining informational table and heard about the Sodexo internships. Having run some social media pages in high school, she was eager to put her skills to use for the dining team.
Working on the social media team, Blackshear also gets to help with design, writing, and video production, all coming together to help get students more engaged with the dining program.
She also looked back fondly at the Gold & Blue Bash event, which was held during her first week at WVU.
“That was my first dining experience ever, and the first time I ate in a dining hall,” she said. “I went and took pictures, the Mountaineer was there, and I got to know the people I work with. It was really fun, and a big chunk of my pictures got posted on social media and used in end of month reports.”
With a goal of a career as a social media manager, Blackshear said this internship has helped prepare her for her after-college future.
I’ve learned how to use other programs that I didn’t use for high school when we were doing social media.
Jenna Cummins from Elkins, W.Va., a marketing major with an emphasis on digital promotions, was looking for internships to build her resume when she applied and got the WVU Dining position. Now a senior, she heads up the design and writing team of Sodexo marketing interns, and she is in her second year as an intern.
We do graphics, write copy, and then I help with social media and street team, filming, taking photos, interviewing people, asking for hot takes.
Cummins meets with Walters and the other team leads at the beginning of each week, outlining what needs to be done, then meets with her team to work on projects. She works in an online program to build out graphics and uses graphic assets from WVU’s brand, as well.
Her proudest moment was working on a humanization project, Cummins said, talking about a project that involved highlighting employees for in-house screens. She interviewed a lot of the employees for the project, and designed the slides with the interview information.
“Once I saw it up on monitors, it was a really great feeling,” she said.
While she is interested in earning her MBA before entering the workforce, Cummins said ultimately she’s interested in a career in marketing, particularly around the data analytics and surveying aspect.
“I like hearing what the consumer thinks,” she said, adding that the internship has helped prepare her for carrying out this role. “It’s a lot easier for me to go up and talk to people I don’t know now.”
Walters said she greatly enjoys working with the team of interns.
"Their fresh perspectives, eagerness to contribute to the Mountaineer student experience, and boundless energy bring a vibrant dynamic to dining services at WVU,” she said. “Mentoring them allows me to help shape the next generation of marketing superstars while fostering a collaborative environment where ideas flow freely. Honestly, their enthusiasm is contagious, making every project feel like a new adventure.”