#kyle mole

Written By: Kyle Mole

You’ve seen her roaming the hallways plenty of times, usually with camera equipment or with fellow classmates. You might have seen her tearing up the turf field as a member of the Woman’s Lacrosse team, or seen her name in the credits of “Neumann Knight Live." Koula Gregor is a student, just like you and I, but is currently interning at Columbia Records in New York City. If there’s one thing you want to learn from Koula it's to never let an opportunity pass you by. Q: How did you land an internship at Columbia Records?

A. Well, I was working one day at my previous internship at the Wendy Williams show, and my friend Nancy, who also interned with me at the Wendy show, came running over to me telling me that she met this women named Gabby who works at Columbia Records and that she was Greek (like me), from Philly and was looking for an intern. She showed me her picture and told me to keep an eye out for her. When I saw her, I said hello and introduced myself. She gave me her card and asked me to come in as soon as possible for an interview. I was so excited and nervous at the same time. When I went in for my first interview it was such an amazing experience. Walking into the Sony building, which is absolutely gorgeous, was an out of this world feeling. Especially being on Madison Ave, it was a little unreal. I ended up going in for two interviews, and then did some waiting. I didn’t hear back for a while but finally, I received a voice mail, on Christmas Eve, telling me that they would like to hire me for the internship position. It was the greatest Christmas present ever. My dad actually took a picture of me freaking out listening to the voice mail in my Christmas pajamas.

Q: What is your intern position at Columbia Records?

A: I am a marketing intern. I work in the office of Scott Greer, who is the Senior Vice President of Marketing. I work alongside Gabrielle Fleishman, who is my supervisor and a marketing director for Scott. They are both amazingly talented people. Our main artists are Daft Punk, Pharrell Williams and Rita Ora, but since Scott is the SVP, we over see many different artists, including Beyonce, The Neighbourhood, Broken Bells, and John Legend.

Q: What has the experience been like during your intern tenure? 

A: Columbia is amazing, of course it’s a high pressure environment, but it is such a welcoming and comfortable atmosphere, I really love it. You can’t walk around on any floor without hearing music blasting from all of the different offices. I feel like I fit right in, it’s amazing.

Q: You said you also interned at the Wendy Williams Show last semester. What position did you have there and what’s the difference in what you do now?

A: I did, it was great! It was fun and crazy at the same time. I was a production intern there. I had the opportunity to work with some amazing producers gathering information and different things for segments. It was a lot different than what I’m doing now. It’s funny, they are both in the entertainment industry, but they have a completely different feel. Working at Wendy was a lot more hands on, running around crazy, especially during the shows. The cameras and yelling and lighting and music and all that goes into TV production, was extremely thrilling. At Columbia, it’s a lot different. It’s still super exciting, just in a different way. Its not as much physical stuff, but more numbers and planning. I still love it, just in different ways!

Q: What have you learned so far and where do you think these experiences will take you going forward? 

A: I have learned so much, it’s not until you go to do something, or read something, that you take a step back and say "Hey, I did that at Wendy!" Or "We just said that today at Columbia!" I really couldn’t stress the importance of getting internships enough. It’s funny, I always say im kind of internship obsessed. I’ve had four so far, and you learn so much from each and every one that you do, and it’s all so different. I hope that they help me to go forward, I’ve met so many amazing people who have been so great to me and told me that I have their support, which is such a great feeling, to know industry professionals are behind you. It’s all about how you spend your time at the different places you’re at and what you make of your internships.

Q: Have you had the opportunity of working any events or meeting any artists at the record label? If so how was it meeting them? 

A: I haven’t done too many events just yet, I am looking forward to doing a lot more soon though! I briefly met Dj Cassidy, which was cool. I just finished up packing some his merchandise to send out to different companies and stations for promotional stuff and then I saw him, ironic I guess. But I have spoken to a lot of key players in music on the phones, I’m not really sure that I’m allowed to talk about it though. But, it was cool!

Q: What’s the next step for Koula Gregor?