Hi! My name is Christopher Rossal. I am a Senior Communication Studies major, and I am also minoring in Entrepreneurship. This semester, I had the privilege of interning for Westchester Computer Consulting as part of their marketing team. Westchester Computer Consulting is based in Valhalla, New York, but allow me to work remotely from Orange. I will be forever grateful for Westchester Computer Consulting taking a chance on me to do their marketing. 

I got to go into the office in person over Thanksgiving break, here is my cubicle!

Securing the internship with Westchester Computer Consulting came from the extensive network I have back in my hometown of White Plains, New York. Capitalizing on these connections and being proactive opened doors for me that I wouldn’t have otherwise realized. With the help of my network, I was able to get in contact with my future boss, who played a vital role in securing the job. 

During my time at Westchester Computer Consulting, my main responsibilities included developing and carrying out marketing plans aimed at promoting our services. This involved making content for various social media platforms, editing our website, creating new logos, and posting blogs. Additionally, I made it my constant priority to direct these marketing campaigns to our target audience of large companies and organizations that needed IT services. I also took a lot of pride in analyzing marketing data and doing market research, along with going through our platform insights to see what we were doing well and where we could improve our tactics. The skills I learned from these tasks allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of campaign effectiveness, permitting for improvements and new ideas for other campaigns. 

I am grateful to the School of Communication and the classes that I have taken to be successful in this internship. During my time at Chapman, I have learned invaluable written and verbal communication skills that give me the confidence to succeed in any role I work in. Classes like Public Speaking, Interpersonal Communication, Mass Communication, and Group Communication contributed to my professional success. Over time, I have learned to analyze audience dynamics and adjust messages to target a specific audience and create effective marketing campaigns for them. Taking classes like Mass Communication has helped me with digital marketing skills and working with social media to get my message across. All of these classes together allow for critical thinking, which I find crucial to the world of marketing since it is constantly evolving based on current trends. Once again, I am thankful to Chapman and the School of Communication for giving me the opportunity to take these classes for the past four years. 

Lastly, I’d like to talk about some of my achievements during the semester! While I was with Westchester Computer Consulting, I was tasked with managing the company’s Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. There was a significant impact, with post-engagement having a 400% increase.  Since the beginning of October, these new outreach efforts brought in over 90 new accounts to our page, resulting in a 10% increase in page visits and post engagement.  

I also had the privilege of helping with the launch of a new company called Xpert Billing Services, connected with Westchester Computer Consulting. At Xpert, I had the task of leading all of their marketing efforts, mainly using Facebook. The Facebook reach experienced a 581.8% increase with me doing their marketing. The publishing insights increased by 700% since there was close to no marketing being done previously. These efforts also led to over 75 new accounts since their launch. These are all achievements that I am proud of during my time with Westchester Computer Consulting.

This is another view of our office space!

As my internship comes to an end, I want to say that I am unbelievably grateful for the opportunity and for everything that I have learned. The chance to manage marketing for Westchester Computer Consulting and Xpert Billing Services was definitely a challenge that came with many rewards. I thank my boss for trusting me to apply my skills to a real-world experience, and am excited to continue my career journey in marketing and to expand my knowledge and network in the future.