Published August 4, 2026 | 3 min Read | Intern Spotlight
Quick Facts:
University: Old Dominion University
Major: Strategic Communications
Minor: Community Health
Internship Role: Marketing & Communications
Hometown: Altavista, Virginia
Internship: Summer 2026
This summer, IALR welcomed Ashyna Robinson as the CEA Innovation Center’s first Marketing & Communications intern. Throughout her internship, she supported the Center’s outreach and communications efforts by developing new resources, enhancing digital content, and helping increase awareness of controlled environment agriculture across Virginia.
About Ashyna
From Altavista, Virginia, Ashyna is a senior at Old Dominion University pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Strategic Communications with a minor in Community Health. Throughout her coursework at ODU, Ashyna has studied Effective Media Writing, Stakeholder Engagement, Strategic Communications, and Organizational Communications. Each course provided her with applicable skills that aided in her success as an intern at the CEA Innovation Center.
Internship Responsibilities
As the Marketing & Communications intern, Ashyna’s primary goals were to increase the visibility of the CEA Innovation Center and to further develop and expand resources for CEA stakeholders. Throughout the summer, she maintained and enhanced the CEA Innovation Center’s website, developed its inaugural, quarterly newsletter, wrote biweekly blog posts, and created physical materials to be placed in the vertical farm.
Project Spotlight
Developing the CEA Innovation Center’s newsletter quickly became one of Ashyna’s favorite projects. Although the newsletter had been a long-term goal for the Center, this summer provided the opportunity to finally bring it to life. This project was memorable for Ashyna specifically because she created it twice. After initially creating the newsletter on one platform, she recognized that another platform better suited the needs and vision of the Center. So, Ashyna pivoted. Rather than settling for the first solution, she rebuilt the newsletter from the ground up. The experience was a reminder: sometimes a good solution can be an even better solution with a little flexibility.
Skills Developed
Before joining the CEA Innovation Center, Ashyna had no prior experience in the field of CEA. Throughout the summer, she expanded her marketing and communications skill set by gaining hands-on experience in website management, newsletter development, public outreach, and agricultural communications. She also gained invaluable experience translating technical agricultural concepts into clear, engaging content for audiences of all ages.
Reflections
“I am so thankful to have been able to work with such a supportive team. It is very rare to be surrounded by colleagues who are genuinely passionate about the work that they do. Their passion was contagious. It fueled my own enthusiasm for marketing and sparked a newfound interest in agriculture and agricultural communications.”
