Undergraduate
Communications and Media
The patio of Edelman’s high-rise office offers sweeping views of Seattle. Phoebe Kim, ’18, often found inspiration here in the summer of 2017 when she was a Prism Scholar at Edelman, a communications marketing firm. By summer’s end, Kim had set her sights beyond that horizon to South Korea, where her mom was born and the rest of her family lives, with a vision to address global injustice through marketing.
It was not the life she had once imagined. Kim came to Seattle University on a music scholarship but had to change course when injury cut her violin career short. She was wading into a new major in communications when she applied for the Edelman internship, which the company established to attract underrepresented minorities to the field.
Though Kim was an intern in the university marketing communications department, she felt she lacked the experience to compete for the internship and almost didn’t apply. Fortunately, a professor urged her on and guided her through the process. Ultimately, Kim was one of two interns selected from 80 applicants across the country for the program’s inaugural year. What she calls the “opportunity of a lifetime” left her emboldened to make a difference through her new profession.
“Here at Edelman I see a connection with social justice. Those issues are only getting more important and coming more to the forefront in the world,” she says. “What a perfect time to put my skills to use.”
Once shy, Kim says Seattle U’s mission to educate the whole person was instrumental in forming the self-assured professional she is becoming. “How I carry myself and how I’ve changed is because of that piece of the mission,” she says. “Being genuine has really shaped who I am.”