COLUMBUS, Ohio — As an Ohio State Fair intern, Kelly Hart, a senior at Bowling Green State University, had opportunity to work with ESPN when the network visited the fair. She enjoyed her internship because it was hands-on and it helped her prepare for her career.

Between showing cattle and helping out, Diane Gress, a senior at The Ohio State University, had gone to the state fair every year for the past two decades. She applied for an internship so she could learn about the public relations side of the fair. It was a good fit.

"I love ag – I love design, but writing is also one of my passions," Gress said.

Each year, Alicia Shoults, Marketing and Public Relations director at the Ohio Expo Center and State Fair, recruits students such as Hart and Gress for a paid internship.

"We hire college students in public relations or ag communications typically, juniors and seniors," she said. "We usually hire three or four a year for this program. They help with all of the aspects of promoting the fair, writing about it, pulling together our daily scheduled events, getting information available for our website so that our patrons have information.

"During the non-fair season, I am a one-person department," she explained. "Without these interns, my job during the fair wouldn’t be possible. We really pride ourselves on making this program an opportunity both for me to have the help, but to allow the interns to learn about public relations in a real world setting and give them a lot of resume and portfolio material."

With each intern, Shoults tries to learn what their interests and career goals are, and then helps them gain experience in those fields. If they are interested in design, she will pair them with the visual communications director. If they like event planning, they can help coordinate some of the opening day activities. If social media is their thing, Shoults has the interns taking photos and creating online content.

Samantha Bartlett interned during the 2011 state fair when she was going into her senior year at Ohio University. She was in the journalism school and majored in public relations. Her internship involved event planning and media relations.

"It was a great experience," Bartlett said. "I learned what it was like to work in a real-world environment. I worked with journalists who were in the Columbus market and wanted to cover an event. I developed relationships with those reporters and also with the people that work for the state fair."

She now works for a public relations firm in the Columbus area. When that firm was looking to fill the position, one employee, who had also been a state fair intern, suggested they ask Shoults about recent interns. Bartlett was hired because of that.

"I am always very pleased (with the interns)," Shoults said. "I get a lot of applicants every year and it is always such a tough job to choose because they’re the cream of the crop. We have had wonderful experiences with the interns."

Added Hart: "We had a good supervisor in Alicia, who prepared us for everything we were going to do, and we were able to do it on our own during the fair. I feel it has prepared me to have a full-time job in public relations after I graduate."

For information, visit www.ohiostate fair.com/summer-internships-at-the-fair