The Candy Connoisseur

PROVO, Utah – Oct 05, 2018 – Classic Easter candies include peanut butter eggs, milk chocolate bunnies, and jelly beans. However, Hershey summer intern and BYU Marriott MBA student Spencer Adkins hopes that a new Easter classic he worked on will hit the shelves in 2020.

Adkins, a candy connoisseur, was living his dream as he completed a marketing internship this summer in Hershey, Pennsylvania, the chocolate capital of the world. Though his job certainly comes with perks such as all-you-can-eat candy, there are a number of other reasons that Adkins loved working for the chocolate giant. “In addition to chocolate, my favorite part of the job was working with a diversity of people,” he says. “I interacted with a variety of departments and got to be the general manager that takes information from different places, makes a story, and solves a problem.”

When Adkins interviewed with Hershey, he shared with the interviewers his fondness for Reese’s peanut butter eggs. After receiving an offer to intern for the company, Adkins became even more excited when he discovered which marketing team he was going to join. “I’m on the Easter team, which is awesome because I love the peanut butter eggs,” he says. “They are definitely one of Hershey’s classic products.”

In addition to perfecting this peanut butter confection, Adkins worked on creating a new Easter candy. His project will add another irresistible delicacy to the mix as chocolate hits the shelves for the 2020 Easter season.

And though Adkins’ life of chocolate and marketing sounds sublime, his path to marketing has taken an interesting course. After graduating from high school, Adkins attended BYU–Hawaii to play intercollegiate golf. Instead of returning to Hawaii after serving his mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Adkins decided to focus less on golf and more on his future career. He moved back to the mainland and chose to study geographic information systems at BYU where he graduated in 2014.

While completing his undergrad, Adkins received an offer to intern with NASA as an earth science contractor. He used his cartography skills to help NASA determine what areas in the Sierra Nevadas in California were most prone to wildfire. Despite the amazing opportunity to work for NASA, Adkins decided that, for him, geographic information systems was not the right career to pursue.

He searched for other possible career opportunities, learning that he was most interested in dipping his feet into marketing; he chose to receive more nuggets of information about the field by continuing his education at BYU Marriott. “BYU Marriott’s MBA program is as good as the best programs in the country,” he says. “I knew this was a place that could get my career going.”

After getting a taste for the candy industry at Hershey, Adkins is currently completing his second year in the MBA program. When he finishes his degree, he hopes to continue crafting his skills by returning to the chocolate capital.

“After interning with Hershey and thinking about what I’ve learned and the opportunities that BYU Marriott has given me to succeed, I’ve come to appreciate what the school has done for me,” he says. “BYU Marriott is an amazing place to be.”