BUSINESS

University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh student named one of eight Harley-Davidson biker social media interns

Rick Barrett
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Tessa Otto, a UW-Oshkosh senior, is one of eight Harley-Davidson social media interns this summer.

A University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh student has been chosen as one of eight Harley-Davidson Inc. social media interns who will travel around the world this summer on motorcycles.

Tessa Otto is a senior at UW-Oshkosh studying project management.

She is one of eight college students, globally, who will get to ride motorcycles and document their experiences in the new internship from Harley-Davidson.

The interns will be given bikes and taught to ride. Then, throughout the summer, they will attend motorcycle events across the country and overseas, documenting their journeys through social media.

They will chronicle their summer by posting videos, pictures and stories on their personal social media channels and Harley’s channels, including on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and SnapChat.

More than 7,500 students from about 30 countries applied for the eight internships.

Besides Otto, the other seven are from Florida, Mississippi, California, North Carolina, South Africa, England and China.

Otto already has her motorcycle license, although she's only been riding since April.

She's a self-described outdoors woman who twice has won snowshoe championships and was raised on a farm in Kennan, a town of 130 people in northern Wisconsin.

"Really anything involving wearing a good pair of boots is where I like to be," she said.

In addition to a salary and riding experiences, the interns will get experience with marketing and other functions at the world’s largest manufacturer of heavyweight motorcycles.

And, of course, they get to keep the bike they rode through the summer.

Otto says she currently rides a Kawasaki motorcycle and she's looking forward to riding with the other interns.

As much as she enjoys her bike, she said, it's not as much fun riding by herself. 

The internship program is part of Harley’s efforts to attract younger motorcyclists. The company has other internships, too, in areas such as engineering and human resources.

In the U.S., Harley and other motorcycle manufacturers are caught between two customer demographic trends: millennials who aren’t widely embracing the motorcycling lifestyle and baby boomers who are aging out of riding.

Harley’s 10-year strategy is to train 2 million new U.S. riders, grow international business to 50 percent of sales and launch 100 new “high-impact” motorcycles.