Erin Goldsmith, MSIMC07, (right) did her IMC Residency at Facebook this summer.

A requirement for all IMC students, the 11-week residency is evolving into a Professional and Academic Residency that will combine a working partnership for a small team of students to work with a company, on site, both in the U.S. and abroad. This immersion activity will enhance the global perspective for students through work on site, and then back in Evanston during the summer quarter of the IMC curriculum.

In 2008, the students will spend their summer at Yum! Brands Shanghai-based office.

Summaries from the 2007 program will be available online in late September.

Advertising Residency Student Summary (in PDF)

Direct, Database and E-Commerce Residency Student Summary (in PDF)

Public Relations Residency Student Summary (in PDF)

Scenes from Summer Residency 2006

In the past, IMC students spent one quarter working on real marketing communications projects at large companies such as AOL, International Truck, Dow Chemical, Golin Harris, Motorola, DraftFCB, Federal Express, OfficeMax, Discover Financial Services, MarcUSA, US Cellular and Miller Brewing.

Like hospital residents, the students became contributing members of the teams on which they work. They are expected to find real solutions to real business problems. The residency program provides invaluable field experience and a forum to apply the lessons from the first three quarters of the curriculum. At the same time, students earn three academic credits.

Since students receive academic credit, all projects must be approved in advance and a faculty member is assigned to monitor each student's progress throughout the summer. Evaluations are done in cooperation with the student's primary supervisor at the company. After returning to campus in the fall, students present their residency experiences to their classmates and the faculty; as a result, everyone receives insights into many corporate cultures.

More than 200 corporations, advertising agencies and media companies have sponsored our students in the fifteen years the residency program has been in place.

Why Sponsor?

List of Corporate Sponsors

Topics/Projects

Interested in becoming a sponsor? Contact Tom Collinger at t-collinger@northwestern.edu.