Breonna Binschus, a junior at Columbia Central High School in Brooklyn, Michigan, visited America’s Preferred Home Warranty (APHW) Thursday, April 19, to spend the day job shadowing with the Marketing Department. Her visit was coordinated through Salida San Miguel, the program coordinator for Junior Achievement of the Michigan Edge, and the 2018 Spring Job Shadow Program.
While Breonna was skeptical at how interesting a home warranty company would be, she dressed to impress and arrived with a smile. “At first, I was like… a warranty company?” she remembered with a laugh. “Then I realized it has its own marketing department, and everyone in it does a different job.”
Her day started with a tour of the building, led by Marketing Manager Jeff Fett. Jeff told Breonna all about the history of APHW while he showed her around, including his development of their logo and brand over the years. “It was so much better than I expected,” Breonna said. “I really liked it!”
Next up was Marketing Systems Coordinator Heidi Vickers, who laid out the logistics side of APHW’s marketing program. Heidi was followed up by Copywriter Cara Baker, then Social Media Manager Dave Parham, and finally back to Jeff for a review of APHW’s printed marketing materials. The day culminated in a lunch discussing what she had learned.
Breonna was inquisitive throughout the day, asking questions about projects the Marketing Department had done in the past, how long they took, and how they were broken up into tasks. She already had quite a bit of marketing know-how from classes at the Jackson Area Career Center and through promotional projects for the school store, but her visit to APHW was still an eye-opening event. “I’ve learned a lot,” Breonna said. “Marketing is definitely something I want to get in to.”
She has dreams of starting off at Jackson College when she graduates high school, and from there the sky is the limit. She’s also interested in potentially coming back to APHW for an internship in the future. For now, however, Breonna is content to learn more about marketing from her favorite teacher, Andrew Haltom. “He’s taught me everything I know,” she said.