Live from Columbus, it’s Frank Munshower!

Joanne “Frank” Munshower has always been passionate about “Saturday Night Live.” This year, she put that passion into practice as an intern on the popular sketch comedy show.

“It has been my dream to work at SNL for as long as I can remember,” she said when asked about the internship she has had with the show since September. “It’s been incredible, seeing the history and the photos on the walls. I’m walking on air every day.”

Munshower graduated from The Ohio State University this weekend with a degree in business administration. She leaves a semester early so she can continue her work in the entertainment industry.

Before “Saturday Night Live,” she completed internships with Apple TV+, the Austin Film Festival and the Office of Student Life.

It was at Ohio State that she picked up the nickname Frank.

“[Frank has a] passion for getting to know people and making community,” said Skylar Balser, communications specialist for the Office of Student Life and Munshower’s former supervisor.

During weekly meetings, Munshower asked the office leaders one question that wasn’t related to their work. She would offer answers as well, including to the prompt “if you could go by another name, which name would you choose?” “Frank” was Munshower’s choice.

“Ever since then, we’ve called her Frank,” Balser recalled.

“It symbolizes my time at Ohio State,” Munshower said.

In addition to a Student Life marketing and communications internship, Munshower was vice president of the Ohio Union Activities Board, as well as chair of the alumni relations and a member of the comedy committee. OUAB plans nearly 200 events annually for the 60,000 students at Ohio State.

“The Ohio Union Activities Board is how I made my home at Ohio State,” she said. “You can only become as good as your community pushes you to be. They all want to do huge things in their lives, they want to impact people and change the world, and being around them just made me better.

This sense of community led Munshower to develop an alumni mentorship program for OUAB, which has more than 500 active alumni. It was through this program that she became connected with Apple TV+, which in turn led to “Saturday Night Live.” She has spent the last three months assisting writers, transcribing episodes, and organizing and distributing scripts.

OUAB is not the only place where Munshower found mentoring: She speaks fondly of her experience with her professors in the Fisher College of Business.

“I’d say the faculty members who go out of their way to do workshops and have mentorship moments with students, that’s where I’ve learned the most,” she said.

Her Student Life internship gave her the first taste of working with adults in a professional capacity and helped hone real-world skills. She spoke to talent agents, helped review contracts, negotiated fees and brought entertainers and activities to the Columbus campus. The 2019 Buck-i-Frenzy was the largest, with more than 70 vendors involved in creating a lifestyle event. At the same time, she also worked as a video assistant for the Department of Athletics.

Exposure to these types of experiences helped Munshower feel comfortable handling deadlines and rapidly changing environments, both of which she has experienced during her entertainment industry internships.

“If someone makes a shot and you have to rewind really fast to do the replay as it’s happening, you don’t have the luxury of doing it again because it’s all live,” she said. “So that was a good lesson, like an athlete, to have relaxed readiness. You’re completely prepared but you never know what’s going to happen.”

It is this unique set of credentials that has made Munshower a successful intern in a competitive field. As her time at Ohio State draws to a close, these experiences have given her a solid foundation for the working world.

“She very much came here to chart her own path,” Balser said – one that has taken her from Columbus to Manhattan, from Buck-i-Frenzy to 30 Rockefeller Plaza.