Why RY?

Written by Mary McCue Bell

Thinking about joining Relevant Youth? Wondering what Relevant Youth is?

Relevant Youth is a creative marketing agency designed to give students a professional experience while still in college. Freshman Emma Boland is a Strategist on the Internal Social Media Task Force, and joined RY’s team her second semester in college.

“I was expecting to get an idea of what working in the professional world is like: working with a team, having assignments with deadlines, thinking collaboratively and creatively about new projects with real clients,” Boland recalled. “These things–along with some amazing friendships and connections–are exactly what I ended up getting from my experience so far as a part of RY.”

Boland heard about RY on a campus tour of Mizzou when she was a junior in high school and wanted to join after her initial introduction to the brand. Two school years later, Boland pursued a spot in the company and succeeded.

“[My tour guide] told me about this unique organization and highly suggested I looked into it and considered applying once I got to college,” Boland said.

RY is a learning environment for students to apply themselves as young professionals. They can learn critical information that can be used in their future careers as well as testing the waters of a legitimate brand.

“I've learned so much about what it’s like to work inside a company and have the opportunity to creatively form their brand,” Boland said. “Everything I’ve learned in RY can be applied to future careers, such as effective communication with team members and bosses, time management, professionalism, as well as things I’ve learned about social media strategy that I can take to similar positions within any field.”

Videographer Easton Kerns learned about RY when Hunter Hart, the Internal Director, visited Kerns’ Digital Storytelling class in the fall semester of his senior year. Easton was a film major and determined that he wanted to be a video editor or videographer, but he had not gained much experience in either area throughout his college career.

“When I heard that they were looking for videographers, I immediately jumped in on the opportunity in hopes of gaining experience and building my portfolio,” Kerns remembered. “For someone who doesn’t know what RY is, I would describe it as a student-run marketing organization that gives other students the opportunity to gain real world experience in their fields that they might not have gotten [otherwise].”

Now, Kerns is a videographer for the Internal Content Creation team, and his main field of work is filming and editing TikToks associated with the RY brand. Through his time at RY, he has been able to navigate his talents in a professional atmosphere to acquire skills that can be applied to future careers.

“To anyone thinking about joining Relevant Youth, I would say go for it,” Kerns urged. “I honestly wished I joined sooner. It really is a great way to get applicable experience and to branch out and learn more about yourself both interest wise and career wise.”