It was Monday June 25^th at 11:15am when the #MRYintern team received an e-mail informing us that MRY was in the running to be named The Top Ad Agency Internship Program of 2012. We were pumped to hear that the program we worked so hard to get accepted for was now in the running to be named the best program in the nation. What was even better was the fact that we had control over the outcome. If we wanted the award badly enough it was there for the taking. All it took was dedication and a drive to make it happen. And so the week began. Our competitive spirits came out. We were determined to win.

We broke out into brainstorming groups to design the social media and word-of-mouth strategies it would take to win. With a combined network of approximately 18,056 Facebook friends and 2,026 Twitter followers between the 16 of us, we were determined to activate as many of our connections as we could. And that is what we did up through the very last few seconds of the competition on Friday June 29^th. At 12:00am all 16 of our phones lit up with GroupMe notifications. We won! The home page of Internshipking.com boasted a final count of 21,410 votes, a 3,755 vote lead over our closest competitor, and we’re pretty darn proud of it.

After a week of reaching out to our families, friends, colleagues, and past MRY interns to vote, our hard net-work-ing paid off and we are all proud to say that MRY has the “Top Ad Agency Internship Program” in the nation. And to be honest, it’s not just an award… it’s the truth. MRY has a company culture that surpasses all of our initial expectations. It’s not often that one comes across an internship program where the interns are treated the same as any other employee. The MRY family lives by the mantra “work hard, play hard” and that was made clear to us after the first few days we were here. There is uplifting music playing in the bathroom all day and the physical office space is super cheery and conducive to creativity and hard work. Try to name another company that has an in house barista named Robyn who makes delicious caffeinated beverages all day and teaches in house yoga on Thursday nights. And in addition to all that, we get fresh fruit delivered on Mondays, a free breakfast buffet every Thursday morning, and surprise Popsicle parties when the weather is unbearably hot.

We are all so grateful to be here learning from some of the brightest and most innovative minds in the industry. Having the title MRY Intern on our resumes isn’t too shabby either. Wherever we go from here, we’re ecstatic and proud to be part of the “Top Ad Agency Internship Program” of 2012. As we said earlier… it’s not just an award, it’s the truth.

-Written by Alex Barz, Marketing Intern. In collaboration with all of the #MRYInterns.