by Lindsay Meyer, junior, advertising and public relations major
Some people like to have all details set in stone before they move, but Ellie Benes figures out the details when she gets there.
Benes has lived in Lincoln, Nebraska, her whole life and did the same thing every summer -- worked as a nanny for the same family. But at the start of summer 2017 she knew she wanted to do something different.
Benes’ best friend, Marti Lococo, lived in San Francisco and kept pushing her to come out there. After Lococo told Benes she knew of families that needed a summer babysitter, Benes knew this was an opportunity too good to pass up.
“I really didn’t think I would have the guts,” Benes said.
After arriving in San Francisco, she was a nanny for several families and house-sat for others.
The mother of one of those families, Erin Lyman, co-founded a company called Magnify Communications. Magnify staff members were getting ready for a tech tradeshow -- Node Summit 2017. Big companies like IBM and Google were going to be there.
Lyman convinced Benes to be a part of the event. She worked as an intern on various tasks, including sending and confirming invites, writing email blasts and promoting the event hashtag. During the event, Benes worked directly with the speakers and attendees, ensuring the speakers started on time and everything went smoothly.
“The networking at the tradeshow was awesome. I got to connect with people, took a few business cards,” she said.
Benes hopes to use these connections after graduation and is motivated to get back to San Francisco.
Benes worked with other interns during her time at Magnify Communication.
“Ellie was so much fun to not only work with, but also be around,” said fellow intern Kobie Pettis. “She has so much positive energy and always was the first one to reach out and help whenever anyone needed a task completed.”
Work didn’t consume Benes’ entire time though. She got to travel to Las Vegas and Canada, and do tourist things around San Francisco on her days off. Benes also came back to Lincoln to sing in a few weddings.
“I tallied up my flights and took a total of 14,” Benes said. “I don’t even know how I managed to afford that. I guess I just got good at finding cheap flights.”
Coming from Nebraska, Benes had to adapt to a different lifestyle, such as using different modes of transportation. She took Bay Area Rapid Transit (similar to the subway) and Uber-ed pretty much everywhere.
“It was so weird to not have a car,” Benes said.
Benes met lots of nice people, but she said nothing compares to Midwestern hospitality.
“Everyone in the city just kind of minds their own business,” she said. “People don’t want to talk to you or have a conversation, they want to keep moving. That was hard to adjust to.”
This experience taught Benes just how independent she can be.
“If I can do that I can go anywhere,” Benes said.