While we were extremely sad to see our fall 2009 interns go, we’re already welcoming a new group! They will start January 4, 2010. Additionally, we’ve added two new assistants.

Mollie Crist, event planning intern

Mollie Crist is currently a senior at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA.  She is majoring communications studies with a concentration in public relations and is also completing a minor in music industry.

Lindsay Elias, public & media relations assistant

Lindsay Elias has a B.A.A. from Central Michigan University in integrative public relations, with a triple minor in advertising, marketing and public affairs.

Katie Farrell, media relations intern

Katie Farrell is a senior at Central Michigan University who plans to graduate with a B.A.A in integrative public relations in August 2010. She is involved in Mortar Board National Honor Society, PRSSA and Golden Key National Honor Society.

Tyrone Gayle, public affairs intern

Tyrone Gayle is a senior communications major at Clemson University with a minor in psychology. He is actively involved in Student Government, serving as a Student Senator, a Public Relations Chair of the Judicial Education committee, and a writer for the school newspaper.

Maria D. James, CR|PR, public relations & social media assistant

Maria James recently received her master’s degree in strategic public relations from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Sarah Morgan, corporate relations intern

Sarah Morgan is a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with a B.A. in public policy and minor in entrepreneurship.

For complete bios on each individual, as well as the rest of the Come Recommended team, click here.

Over the next few months there will be some changes to Come Recommended’s look and functionality. The new design will have the same capabilities as before-video chat, real-time instant messaging, and portfolio samples-but will also include some new features to make it more interactive and further enable networking. Some new features include:

• Private messaging: Come Recommended members can send messages to people with whom they have connected. This works like internal site e-mail and will give candidates and employers further opportunity to network. This feature will be a more comprehensive version of what is currently available on Come Recommended. Members may also send messages to multiple members and receive site-wide messages from administrators.
• Groups: Come Recommended members can create groups for multiple members to engage in conversation and forum discussions and in the future will be able to post any sort of content, including blog posts and links.
• User-generated blogs: Members will be able to create their own blogs. This enables candidates to show off their best work to employers and employers to facilitate conversation and generate ideas for candidates to comment on.
• Blog tracking: The blog tracking component will gather all blogs, blog posts and comments that members have made. This means other members can easily find all blogs that a member belongs to as well as their recent posts and comments.
• The wire: Members will be able to interact by posting short messages on one another’s profiles and on group profiles.

Stay tuned for these exciting changes-and more!