Student selected for Kennedy Center internship

Greta Hays, a Northwestern College senior, has been selected for an arts management internship at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. A public relations major with a theatre and speech minor, Hays will spend the spring semester in the nation’s capital.

One of just 20 Kennedy Center interns, Hays will be tasked with publicity, promotion and coordination responsibilities for the national Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF), a competitive showcase of regional KCACTF winners from graduate and undergraduate theatre programs around the U.S. The national KCACTF event is April 18–23.

“Northwestern theatre students are well-known in our KCACTF Region V for their acting, design and technical excellence,” said Jeff Barker, Northwestern College theatre professor. “Now, to have one of our students selected for a highly-competitive Kennedy Center internship is really a thrill. Greta is so talented and will be a wonderful representative of Northwestern’s theatre and public relations programs among an elite group of arts managers and executives at the Kennedy Center.”

Northwestern public relations professor Ann Minnick  agrees. “Greta has been a leader among students in our growing public relations program at Northwestern,” she said. “She’s talented and passionate about the crafts of public relations and theatre.”

Hays applied for 14 internships in Chicago and Washington, D.C. and was selected for several before receiving word she’d landed the Kennedy Center internship. In addition to receiving a weekly stipend and attending seminars by Kennedy Center employees and executives of other major arts institutions in Washington, Hays will also receive free tickets to all Kennedy Center performances this spring.

Hays has been a student assistant in the communications department and an account executive for Crosswalk Media, the college’s public relations practicum group. She has also served as a freelance writer for the Northwestern College public relations office.

Hays has had roles in several Northwestern College theatre productions, including the musical “Into the Woods,” for which she received a KCACTF Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship nomination. After graduation in May, she plans to pursue a career in arts management or casting.