Applying for internships can be a daunting task, and while most people don’t begin to think about internships until after their sophomore or junior year, Catherine Gabel had other ideas–big ideas.

She spent this past summer as an advertising and marketing intern for Cosmopolitan magazine in New York City.

And getting there was not easy. Last year, her freshman year, she applied to 25 summer internships. And then she landed the big one.

“I was sitting in the AMU about to eat lunch when I received the ‘Congratulations’ email,” she says. “I was so overwhelmed because I knew this was my first step towards the fashion industry.”

“I worked really closely on a huge project with L’Oreal, so basically for three weeks, I was helping get our sales reps for Cosmopolitan ready for their huge meeting with L’Oreal, which is our biggest advertiser,” Gabel says.

Her dedication stood out to her bosses, who invited her to stay on longer than the six-week internship. This meant Gabel got to explore the marketing side.

As one of the few interns who spent the entire summer at Cosmo, she kept her advertising internship duties, but also helped take on Cosmo’s annual “Summer Splash” party for their readers.

After a dazzling summer in the big apple, Gabel returned to Marquette more motivated than ever, taking the momentum from her summer and putting it back into Marquette by founding the first ever Marquette Style Club with the help of Marquette senior in the College of Communication Bennett Kerwin.

Style Club has an online magazine where its 70-plus members can blog about anything from food, campus style, beauty and do-it-yourself projects, with everything targeted to the Marquette student.

“When we do a do-it-yourself project, we are going to tell you where to get the supplies needed and how to find them on campus,” she says.

Gabel hopes to hold a trunk show with clothing companies on campus, such as Vineyard Vines and Southern Tide. The members get to enjoy the perks of getting to know those in the fashion industry, according to Gabel, who plans to use her fashion connections from her previous internships to help members network while in the club.

Gabel is also an avid blogger. She is currently working on two different websites
dedicated to fashion: CollegeFashionista.com and Cheyenne Meets Chanel.

At Cheyenne Meets Chanel, a well-known blog out of Hollywood, California, she’s given a topic by blog owner Shea Marie, which she turns into a written post and multimedia presentations for the website.

For CollegeFashionista she gets to focus on Marquette style, by posting photos of stylish students she sees on campus.

“I am also a social media intern for CollegeFashionista.com, so I run some of their social media outlets as well,” she says. “I’m obsessed with social media, so that was like the best thing that could ever happen.”

Gabel runs her own personal fashion blog, IndulgenceIsSimple.com, where she blogs about her daily fashion life: “It’s just little dilly dallies of what I do everyday.”

So how is Gabel going to top last summer? Well, She has options.

“I am contemplating a few different internships—mainly whether I want to stay in magazines or move into styling or broadcasting,” she says.

But as a sophomore, she still has time to figure it all out. Just as she says about her upcoming summer, “It’s still undefined.”