Alumna Meghan Peterson (’19 marketing and operations and supply chain) credits the Moore School with providing her the skills and opportunities that allowed her to launch her career with Intel Corporation.
Since graduating from the Moore School, Peterson has been working for the technology company in their Portland, Oregon, office. In her current role as an integrated marketing specialist, Peterson supports Intel’s data center products and works with global stakeholders on a variety of different projects spanning competitive marketing, editorial management and internal communications. Peterson said she finds herself utilizing the skills that she gained from the Moore School in her position every day.
“My time at the Moore School taught me the skills to work confidently through situations where I might not know the answer,” she said. “In the early part of your career, I feel like there is a lot of ambiguity – so I’m grateful to have been placed on projects during college where you had to be the subject matter expert in topics you weren’t familiar with. The soft skills I was able to pick up from my peers, my courses and my professors really helped me succeed in my career, specifically related to creative problem solving and stepping up to lead.”
Peterson said that she initially chose to attend the Moore School because of its commitment to global and hands-on learning.
“In the classroom, the faculty at the Moore School genuinely cared about student outcomes and pushed me to explore the things that interested me,” she said. “Outside of the classroom, there were many opportunities to see the world and grow my knowledge.”
Peterson studied abroad during a summer course that toured companies in Germany during her sophomore year and in Rome, Italy, for a semester during her junior year.
While on campus at USC, Peterson was involved in multiple student organizations, including the Women in Business Council and Alpha Kappa Psi Professional Business Fraternity. She said the people that she met in these organizations pushed her to volunteer, to pursue internships, to study abroad and to try new things.
“Some of my favorite memories from college are with people from these organizations – and include traveling abroad, late study nights in the library or even just hanging out between classes in SCANA [study rooms],” she said. “These organizations and people really shaped the four years I was at USC and molded me as a person.”
While at the Moore School, Peterson was not only involved with campus organizations but also chosen as a Moore School Marketing Scholar. This opportunity allowed her to gain more hands-on experience and further develop her marketing skills.
“I had the chance to be selected as one of the Moore School Marketing Scholars and was paired with Lionsgate during my senior year of college to develop a strategic marketing plan,” she said. “This allowed me and a team of other marketing students to really dive in and experience what marketing actually looked like outside of a textbook or a classroom. This opportunity confidently prepared me for my first full time job post-graduation and for that I couldn’t be more thankful.”
As she continues her career in the marketing space, Peterson said she looks forward to continuing to grow her marketing competencies and soak up as much knowledge as she can from her colleagues.
“I really think the first five years is the time to try new things, and I’ve been really intent on doing that,” she said. “In the next 10 years, I want to leverage that knowledge and start specializing further — while continuing to pay it forward to other Gamecocks.”
-Claire McGrath