pursuit+

Communications intern

I was approached to join PURSUIT+ as a Communications Intern during the summer of 2015. It had been a team of one; now it was a team of two. 

PURSUIT+ was the brainchild and personal project of Michelle Suttle, the Managing Director of Partnerships at a global marketing agency called VML. Working in business development for the past 15 years led Michelle to realize that she had a knack for opening doors—especially the doors that have seemed most definitely shut. After several years of mentoring colleagues through the job search, Michelle decided that it was time to share her job-seeking strategies with the people that seemed to need them the most: college students. Michelle thought I would be the perfect person to help her transform this project from an idea-in-her-head to a thing-in-the-world. My role within PURSUIT+ was a medley of content developer, brand strategist, event coordinator, and personal assistant. 

Quickly, I  came to understand the challenges that PURSUIT+ faced as a new business. Michelle was disappointed when we didn’t accomplish all that we had set out to in a single semester, but in the process of “failing” we had succeeded quite a bit: We launched a website, settled on a logo, created workshop content, organized speaking engagements, made several campus appearances, recruited potential new interns, and made some important contacts on campus.

When she originally pitched the idea of PURSUIT+ to me, I asked Michelle, “But what if it fails?” And she immediately replied, “It won’t.” Michelle’s greatest strength may be this unwavering belief in her own abilities. It’s as fearless as it is foolish, and that is something that I find truly admirable. The initial goal may have been ambitious, but it was this reckless ambition that got PURSUIT+ off the ground and kept it moving forward — even after a defeat.

Michelle taught me that sometimes you just have to take a leap and have enough faith in yourself to figure it out on the way down.