Entertainment company internship is a smooth ride so far for journalism student

(Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of stories about students in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications completing summer internships.)

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A summer at the beach probably sounds good to many college students, and it’s even better when that time provides a building block toward an eventual career. Isabella Mackey, a Penn State sophomore majoring in journalism, has been making the most of that approach this summer.

Mackey is working five days a week as part of the marketing team for Morey’s Piers & Resorts, whose parks and restaurants in Wildwood, New Jersey, attract thousands of visitors every summer and have done so for years.

Mackey helps with activations, events, photography, social media and more. It’s a little bit of everything because that’s the reality for the company’s small and productive marketing team. The team tells the company’s story every day on multiple social media channels — and in person for all those visitors. All told, the Morey’s Piers portfolio includes three piers, two water parks, five restaurants, four hotels, a par-3 golf course and a minigolf course.

So far Mackey’s duties have included photo and video creation as well as event support and activation, content monitoring and even collaboration with charitable efforts, including one with the Philadelphia Eagles Autism Foundation. She works weekdays and has weekends off.

Mackey grew up attending the company’s parks, so the opportunity — made possible in part because she asked a fellow Penn Stater about their experience as an intern with the company last summer — has provided several full-circle moments, she said. She’s living with her grandparents and walking to work on the boardwalk each day.

She’s also making an important contribution.

“She’s been here about a month, and she’s been a big asset to the team. Plus, it’s amazing how much she’s grown in such a short time,” said Megan Lonegan, the company’s marketing coordinator, who started with the company as an intern like Mackey. “Things are constantly changing, and you have to be able to flexible and adapt. Isabella does that well. Plus, it’s good to have a strong work ethic, and she does. In the summer, you’re here a lot, and she’s done a super job.”

The company balloons from 150 full-time employees to 1,500 employees in the summer. The July 4 weekend will be busy as always, but there’s never really a down time and the marketing team plays a vital role in everything from supporting big concerts (Morey’s was the official pre-party location for the Barefoot Country Music Festival in June) to helping make every family’s visit special.

“Because we get to touch so many things, I think interns with us, or companies our size, are really well prepared for what might come in the future,” Lonergan said.

Mackey has had success handling social media efforts in the past, too. In high school, she took over the account for my track and field team and helped it grow from about 10 followers to 400.

“I had a lot of freedom,” she said. “It seemed that if you create a vision for an account, you can get more followers. This summer is certainly different, more of everything, and it’s great to be learning about things in another way.” 

Mackey was successful as a runner as well. She ran middle-distance events, and her determination on the track — along with the success with those initial social media efforts — gave her some confidence and heightened her interest in communications as a career, she said.

She got involved at Penn State almost immediately after setting foot on the University Park campus for the 2024-25 academic year.

Mackey secured a position with Her Campus PSU, joined the Association for Women in Sports Media and joined Trilogy, a student organization that supports the Penn State Dance Marathon (THON). She also joined a THON hospitality committee.

She got involved with PSN-TV, the student-run television network, as well. She gained experience with a couple of sports shows, “Penn State Sports Night” and “360 Sports.”

Mackey’s father attended Penn State as did two of her cousins who graduated this spring. Still, while she’d been to Penn State football games and visited the University Park campus while growing up, it was a campus tour and seeing the facilities of the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications in person that confirmed she would apply to the University, she said.

“After touring the media center and talking to the people, I just knew,” Mackey said. “You can feel that they care, and I wanted to be part of that.”

She also knew what she wanted to do, and that plan for success kept her focused on an internship this summer, she said, because more experience will help her for what she hopes will be an eventual career in sports journalism.

She said she knows it’ll be no day at the beach, but she's determined and ready for the necessary hard work. And she’s embracing that foundational work happening at a beach this summer.