Current Full-Time student dives into Digital Marketing; combining internship with continued education. 

Current Adult Digital Media Student, Rachel Plunkett enrolled in Eastern Oklahoma County Technology Center’s Digital Media Program as an adult student for the ‘23-’24 school year and – confident she found her niche – took further direction of her future when she accepted a Video Associate Internship position with a Digital Marketing and Advertising Agency in Oklahoma City, High Five Media. 

Plunkett, a 2021 graduate of Life Christian Academy in Choctaw, attended Rose State College and earned her Associates Degree in Multimedia Digital Design in the Spring of 2023. After she received her degree, she felt the need to dig deeper into Videography. 

“The program at Rose didn’t touch on the video aspect as much as I wanted it to and I thought that would be a really interesting career field to go into,” she said. “So I started looking around.  I saw that EOC is very affordable and that I could complete the program in one year, so that was the main draw for me.” 

As the Video Associate, Plunkett adds support for the video team and works as an Intern three days per week. 

“Basically, I add support for the video team by editing videos, helping with shoots and stuff like that,” she said. “I’m able to apply credit hours from the internship toward the program here, which is really nice.” 

EOC Tech Digital Media Instructor, Mr. Adam Bass encouraged Plunkitt to pursue the internship with High Five as he recognized her skill and potential in the field. Plunkett said she didn’t even know an internship for credit hours was a possibility, until Bass reached out to them himself. 

“Rachel has all the tools to be a great employee or self-employed worker in the Digital Media Industry,” Bass said. “She is creative, a great problem solver and always able to work with different personalities. She’s also driven, hardworking and a pleasure to be around.”

Although Plunkett previously earned a degree in Digital Design, she said the experience gained at EOC Tech allows her to feel more confident in her current internship as well as in her future endeavors. 

“Getting hands-on experience with the cameras, building a portfolio with different projects and earning certifications through different tests are all things that I feel really help prepare me for my future,” she said. “Before, I didn’t really know anything about Adobe After Effects, but now I do and that’s helped with the HighFive Internship because they really needed someone who could do that.”

Plunkett enjoys many aspects of Digital Media, but video production excites her the most and ideally, she would like to work full-time at HighFive Media, or somewhere similar. 

“The whole process of producing a video is fun for me,” she said. “Once we have the idea and then we shoot it and see it all come to life is really cool. I enjoy working with other people and being able to take an idea and run with it.”

Plunkett attended a community college prior to entering the Digital Media program at EOC Tech and was pleasantly surprised with the environment as an adult student. 

“One thing that surprises me is how much the Instructors care about the long term goals of their students,” she said. “Coming from a community college to EOC was a big change, but I feel like [Instructors] genuinely care about where you’re going and do their best to prepare you for that.”