Best friends share highlights of Miller Lite internship

ANGOLA, Ind. – Four best friends embarked on an epic adventure after ending the school year at Trine University.

Longtime friends Will Chrystal, a business administration major from Portage, Mich.; Matt Kopina, a communication major from Wooster, Ohio; John McLaughlin, a marketing major from Wooster; and Mason Zimmer, a communication major from Peru, Ind., teamed up to win the Miller Time Internship. The best buddies beat more than 2,000 teams to win the national competition.

The 16-day internship explored the best jobs Miller Lite has to offer and treated the foursome to experiences that money can't buy.

"The best part was meeting so many people along the way and to experience the trip with my three best friends," Chrystal said. "You can't put a price tag on what we saw or did on this trip."

The guys started their adventure on Friday, May 17, in Philadelphia and ended their journey on Wednesday, May 29, in Los Angeles. At stops in other cities they experienced other internship duties that some might call perks.

In Philadelphia, they served beer as guest bartenders. After boarding the internship RV – which looked like a beer delivery truck and featured a lux interior with large screen televisions, Xbox 360 and comfy space for relaxing – the guys traveled May 18 to Charlotte, N.C., home of Charlotte Motor Speedway. There, they met Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion in the NASCAR Sprint Car Series.

"Keselowski, Darren Woodson, former player with the Dallas Cowboys, and Vince Vaughn were all very interesting people," Kopina said. "We spoke with Darren the most and he is an extremely friendly guy who you could sit down with, have a beer and talk football all day."

Football was the experience in Dallas on May 24 while first-class baseball was on the list of activities in Chicago on May 22.

The team rounded out the trip by going behind the scenes in Milwaukee on May 21 to see how Miller Lite is brewed and by delivering beer to the "hottest pool party in Vegas" on May 27.

The trip culminated with the Trine interns walking the red carpet in Los Angeles for the premier of "The Internship" movie on May 29.

"They take care of us real well," Zimmer told the Herald-Republican newspaper after the internship.

"Overall, it was an incredible experience that far exceeded any expectations that we had," McLaughlin said. "Getting to spend 16 days with three of my best friends, doing things even money can't buy, was truly a dream come true."

"Meeting executives, regional managers, senior managers, directors and more could not have come at a better time for my graduation from Trine in December," Kopina said. This summer, he plans to continue working at the Sherwin-Williams Co. where he has worked for seven years and to complete a marketing internship with a local company in Wooster.

"After completing the internship, I decided I would like to pursue a career in either sales or promotional marketing. I love the people-to-people aspect of marketing, which we got to do a lot of during our 16-day adventure," McLaughlin said. He is spending the summer in Anchorage, Alaska, where he is completing an internship with Nordstrom and taking in his fair share of hiking and camping.

Chrystal plans to complete his degree this summer with online classes and is scheduled to begin work June 24 with Coyote Logistics in Chicago.

The Miller Time Internship was created in honor of the brand's partnership with 20th Century Fox's comedy "The Internship," starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. In the movie, which opened June 7, Vaughn and Wilson fight for the job of their dreams and Miller Lite challenged groups of friends to prove why they deserved the internship of their dreams.