Hunter Ristau

"Since I worked for the local Lawrence owner-operator last summer, I had a pretty good understanding of the system, but I was able to expand my knowledge with a series of lunch and learns and chats with leadership."

Hunter Ristau interned with McDonald's in Chicago.

McDonald's

I moved to Chicago for the summer to be a Global Leadership Communications Intern at McDonald’s! McDonald’s is one of the biggest brands in the world and the biggest fast-food restaurant with 48,000 locations worldwide.

Over the summer, I worked with the global leadership including CEO and President Chris Kempczinski to prepare remarks for speaking engagements. I also worked with other departments and teams throughout the system to host events to push McDonald’s efforts on diversity, equity and inclusion and a town hall for all global employees.

Since I worked for the local Lawrence owner-operator last summer, I had a pretty good understanding of the system, but I was able to expand my knowledge with a series of lunch and learns and chats with leadership, both U.S. and Global and the University Recruiting team. This helped me grow my knowledge about how decisions are made that will affect the owner-operators all around the world.

I found this program online and connected with Jayhawks who work at McDonald’s with the help of lecturer and Senior Vice President of Strategic Communications at the KU Alumni Association David Johnston.

Hunter Ristau is a senior in the J-School's Strategic Communication concentration; he also is minoring in Sport Management.

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