I have learned that I really want to work for a larger company instead of a small business. I also learned that I really dislike Public Relations and want to finish school and become an art director. I like the idea of public relations, but it feels like there is a ceiling of creativity on it and that you can’t really expand beyond that. I am most proud of my work with a photo shoot I directed and styled. I love seeing my ideas come alive. I have seen that small business owners (especially older ones) are extremely stuck in their ways. The idea of change sounds fancy and sweet, but scares them. I want to work in a field that’s ever changing and adapting. I realized I don’t ever want to be stuck. I don’t ever want to be set. I always want to learn more.
Internships are very important for personal growth and learning. Thus far, I have discovered a lot about my self. Some things I don’t really like and others I am proud of. I have run into a few challenges along the way. I am a very creative person with large ideas, but fear of executing them perfectly. I have seen I am afraid of failure, but failure is where I have learned the most. Recently, I have had to push what I think this business needs in order to thrive out of the way and focus on doing exactly what she wants. It is interesting because my boss will say, “you are free to try anything”, but then I do and she is upset. I am trying to meet in the middle with them and be adult about being talked to in ways I feel like I don’t deserve.
I have learned that I really want to work for a larger company instead of a small business. I also learned that I really dislike Public Relations and want to finish school and become an art director. I like the idea of public relations, but it feels like there is a ceiling of creativity on it and that you can’t really expand beyond that. I am most proud of my work with a photo shoot I directed and styled. I love seeing my ideas come alive. I have seen that small business owners (especially older ones) are extremely stuck in their ways. The idea of change sounds fancy and sweet, but scares them. I want to work in a field that’s ever changing and adapting. I realized I don’t ever want to be stuck. I don’t ever want to be set. I always want to learn more.
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It has been a thrilling experience thus far at the Tri-State Defender and a challenging one as well, which was expected. Actually working in a news station and making the transition to actually writing has been fruitful, beneficial and at the same time it has been a challenging one. I say challenging because my editor, Karanja Ajanaku, is always pushing me to give the newspaper my best work, but also letting myself know that I am capable of doing the work as well. I have published two pieces of work thus far, one being a commentary about my first visit to the National Civil Rights Museum in lieu of Black History Month and another piece covering a young women’s conference held at GRAD Academy in Memphis. I also was close to having the opportunity to interview Emmy Award winning actress, Loretta Divine, but unfortunately that day was deemed a snow day for the city of Memphis and I was unable to do it! I am definitely still grieving about that opportunity. Other than that, my experience is going great. My most favorite part has to be having the chance to inform the city of Memphis of how great it is, but also learning new things along the way for myself about local and national things going on daily!
Working as an intern for one of the trendiest women’s fashion stores has definitely had its perks. Not only have I been gaining the opportunity to enhance my profession social media skills and Photoshop skills, I have also really enjoyed the tasks and even have had the opportunity to networks at invites such as the Memphis Fashion Week.
For various promotion events the store has had this semester, I was in charge of the planning and marketing. To bring awareness to these events I prepared by creating a call list that consisted of top clients for the store to call and also I made flyers that were later on handed out throughout the mall and around campus. The flyers contained details of what type of promotion the shop we be having and also a few pictures of top pick options some of the associates chose. Other planning for the events also included tasks such as finding decorations and refreshments to serve such as GiGi’s Cupcakes. Yumm! Besides store promotion events, other events I have helped plan have been a couple of fashion shows that took place in the Oak Court mall. Although event planning is probably my favorite thing to do at my internship, my regular job is to update the social media page. Often, the store will have “mini photoshoots” that consists of the girls working there trying on new shipment as it arrives and me taking quick pictures of them on my iPhone out of the dressing room and then I post the pictures to our social media page and use cute hashtags such as #BCBGENRATION or #GENGIRL. Overall, I am thankful for this opportunity to intern at BCBG. In the process I am gaining professional experience as well as gaining networking opportunities. “Let’s move.” Whenever I hear those two words, I know it is going to be a good afternoon at ALSAC St. Jude. I work on the sixth and top floor of the National Executive Office, and the floor is lined with cubes of all sizes, all decorated differently. The cubes are roomy, but if you want to stretch out and really focus, you find a different spot to work in. Or at least the Operations and Budget team does. As ALSAC St. Jude approaches becoming a billion dollar business, there is a lot going on in Field Operations. We want each region and program to be stable in their fundraising dollars, but also improve events and practices, as well as adding in some new ones, to get us to a legendary mark. Where I typically do more work for the executive office, I am now doing more work with the event reps, regions, and programs. I have now been at ALSAC St. Jude for a year and three months, and I can tell that my work and devotion are being rewarded. I am trusted with important documents and attending brainstorming meetings in place of my supervisor. My input is desired on how to connect with St. Jude Play Live, and I am getting to lead the Dream Home team in “pre-mortem” planning for their events. Additionally, whenever Burton, my boss, says those two words and leads us to a bigger space, bringing Post-It notes along, that means we will be thinking of new programs for Field Operations for the remainder of the day. This has be the best part of my job – brainstorming. Having my opinion actually matter in creating the future of fundraising at a place I care so deeply about… That’s amazing. I am one proud #journointern. I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is I am finally getting used to the flow of my internship. No two days are the same at St. Jude. Some days I give tours to a small group, some days I help set up events for hundreds of people. This is part of why I LOVE working there; there is never a dull moment. The bad news is, I only have about three weeks left. I have learned so much so far, and much of that is thanks to the amazing event marketing team I work with. Even on my first day, I was treated as an equal member of the team, not just an intern. They have included me, guided me, and pushed me to learn new things and do them with confidence. The coworker equality and motivation to take it to the next level does not stop with my event marketing team. I have had the chance to attend a few meetings with the CEO of ALSAC, Rick Shadyac. In these meetings, all departments come together to share their ideas on how to improve the work ALSAC does for St. Jude or ways that ALSAC can reach a certain goal. I am amazed every time I attend these meetings at how open everyone speaks with one another and how gracefully Shadyac responds to every comment or suggestion. No one is afraid to speak up with a silly idea or question. The atmosphere throughout St. Jude and ALSAC is incredible, and although I have never worked anywhere else, I am confident in saying that it is rare as well. I am a public relations major, but I have changed my mind a million times on what I want to do with my degree. My latest career choice has been event planning for a hospital, so I was beyond thrilled to have the opportunity to work for St. Jude. This internship has solidified this decision for me. My team concentrates on event planning, but no one event is alike. Besides that, I am placed to help different members of the team so that I am able to see what goes in to their specific role. It’s safe to say I love every single aspect of planning events. I love knowing what we do helps families in need. I love giving tours of the hospital and seeing people’s face light up when they see all the amazing things St. Jude does for patients and families. I love my internship. I love St. Jude. “Making magic happen every day” is a phrase all cast members at Walt Disney World follow. It is our constant goal to provide magical experiences for every guest whether it be there first visit or 100th visit. We want every guest to have the same experience and create consistency of a great experience for all guests. Honestly, that can prove extremely difficult to do at times. Guests can be demanding which is understandable considering how much money they spend to vacation here, but guest service is a top priority and the lengths that we go to ensure guests have a great experience are unbelievable.
Many people imagine working at Disney World as the dream job, and do not get me wrong, it is. However, to keep things running smoothly, it takes lots of hard work behind the scenes to make the magic happen. Every park has personnel on hands 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days a year cleaning, setting up, and keeping the magic alive. Since I started at Disney two months ago I have been able to make some truly magical moments with guests and had some magical moments of my own. I have made some of my best friends since arriving down here and have met so many from all over the world. There has been one guest experience that has stuck out to me. About a month ago, I met a lady while I was working at Magic Kingdom who told me that she had been planning to go to Disney for the past two years. Two years ago her grandfather passed away and she had to delay her trip. She tried again the next year, but her fiancé died in a tragic car accident once again causing her to delay the trip. Once she finally arrived here this year, she broke into tears at the airport because she finally made it to the happiest place on earth after a couple very disheartening years of troubles. That story is what I think back to when I have days here that I am exhausted or just want to be somewhere else. People come to Disney to escape from their worries, and I am being paid to make people smile and work for a company that is known for happiness. How many people can say they get to work at the happiest place on earth? I know it’s a privilege I take pride in every day. I walked into Obsidian Public Relations with merely a classroom understanding of how public relations works in the real world. That’s not to say I was clueless, but I knew the concepts by their name rather than their actions. I hadn’t had the opportunity to put public relations in motion yet. In my first few weeks as an intern, I learned quickly that it’s a fast-paced world and at any given moment you can go from researching a client’s target audience and building an appropriate media contact list for story pitching to writing a meaningful blog post that will be featured on their website or building a social media platform from the ground up. These are the experiences I’m most grateful for. I have been able to experience all of the emotions that come with the field of public relations. I got to see a client’s products be put into grocery stores for the first time; stores I helped him find to go and do demonstrations for. I got to start some of the first conversations with the most critical partners for one of our client’s centennial celebration events that will take place next year. I also got to help with a restaurant opening in Starkville, Miss. where I helped with media drops at various outlets and helped organize and plan the VIP opening. I got the chance to write about so many different things- things I didn’t know anything about that required a bit of research to start and things I’m knowledgeable of and am passionate about. The best part about the writing portion of my work is when clients need something very specific with detailed guidelines on how it has to be written in order to be published, we do monthly Obsidian posts for our website that allows us to really write about things that are trending now and topics that can really go any way that we want them to. I wrote blogs on personal branding techniques, the selfie sensation, and more. Through writing, my boss is able to review my posts and send me immediate feedback on how I’m doing. This is so helpful to those of us who love to write, but maybe aren’t the best with AP style rules. One of my goals coming into this internship was to observe the corporate culture of an agency, because I had never worked in an agency prior to this. This has been one of the most rewarding parts of my job. Each month, we have team events where we go together and do something fun to sort of alleviate the stresses in the office and kick back and enjoy each other’s company. Last month we went to Sky Zone and it was a blast! We also participated in monthly potlucks and luncheons where we all sat around and ate yummy food while we talked about happenings in life. I think events like these really help boost morale in the office and make us appreciate who we work with and for. Obsidian is a great group of individuals and I’m fortunate to say I got to be a part of that when all is said and done. Well, this blog is supposed to be an update on how our internships are going, but I’m taking this class after the fact so I can’t really comment on that. Even so, I suppose I can write some more about how my internship went.
Technically speaking, I was an intern in the Spring 2014 and Fall 2014 semesters. That’s what the school says, at least. In my mind, however, I figure that my internship lasted throughout my entire tenure at The Daily Helmsman. I went into the Helmsman completely unsure of how to work as a reporter. That changed quickly. I still remember my first story—the University was rolling out a bike sharing program, and my editor wanted me to go talk to someone at the Peddler, the bike shop that was supplying the bikes. I was in the area anyway, so it worked out. I ended up trying to wrangle as many people as I could to provide information. I even tried getting in contact with the president of the company that was making the bikes. He never got back to me. It required a major change in how I think in order to work at the Helmsman. I couldn’t blithely go through the day anymore—I had to start thinking about things like a reporter. I had to learn how to talk to people, something I originally had a problem with. I also had to learn who to talk to in the first place, and all the little tricks those in power use in order to hide information from reporters. A lot of that sounds like it’s very situational, but the truth is that those skills are valuable even outside of the context of the Helmsman. Information shouldn’t be held prisoner by those at the top. At this point I am extremely excited and optimistic about the experience that I gained from my internship with Baptist. I believe I have positioned myself as a professional with knowledge and potential. I have redesigned my logo, resume and other templates and will have my new website ready for launch in a few weeks. This has been a long process but the invaluable skills I have learned I know will pay off soon. My internship program coordinator in Chile has all of my updated materials and is actively seeking a position for me in Chile. I have been in almost constant communication trying to assess the progress and send them enough information so that they feel equipped to find me the perfect placement. I have extremely high expectations but I’m not sure if that’s such a good thing. This is all so extremely knew and terrifying but thrilling at the same time. The job site that they have potentially paired me with has made this time of waiting even more excruciating. I could possibly be working at a company called Smartrip. The communications team there is apart of a socioeconomic travel agency. They are paired with hotels and provide experiential, interest-driven trips for travelers that still benefit the country/region. This is a great opportunity to see the beauty across the country and also to do impactful programming. I am excited to find out if this is where I will work. My internship experience with NHLA so far has been extremely beneficial to my future career in PR. I have been extremely involved with the numerous publications that NHLA distributes, including the nationally circulated magazine Hardwood Matters; the international publication International Matters; and the annually published Buyer’s Guide, which lists all of NHLA’s national and international members and information about the company (whether they are a sawmill, concentration yard or distribution yard, if they import and/or export hardwood, if they supply rough or kiln dried lumber, etc.) I have been assigned the tasks of copywriting and proofreading everything before publication, and I have also researched material in the NHLA museum and public library records to find pictures and information to go in the magazines and online media. I recently wrote the two official press releases for both the regular and Progressive Program Inspection School graduations. The director also assigned me the task of researching vendors and supply companies to get price quotes for the museum remodel, which will take place this year. This includes everything from lighting, glass for the display cases, frames and mountings for the paintings and photographs, etc. That has been fun and exciting to be able to use more of my creative side and eventually see things come to life. I attended the Bartlett High School Career Day and had to man the NHLA booth where I essentially gave the students an “elevator pitch” about why the Inspection School could be a viable option for those who cannot attend or choose not to attend a traditional 4 year college. I have had some challenges, no job is perfect, but the bumps in the road have been extremely minute and miniscule in the grand scheme of things. The real world is very different than college life, and you have to learn how to work well with others in a professional setting where everyone has different opinions and ideas. People talk and comments get misconstrued very easily. However, I love the people I work with and I love that it is a small workplace with just a handful of employees at the headquarters. I still do the normal office work of making phone calls and organizing Excel sheets, but I have been given much more responsibility because the directors said they feel as if I am a real and true employee, not just an intern. It feels good to know that I am doing a good job and actually successfully performing important tasks for such a large organization. |
Erin Willis, Ph.D.Assistant Professor at the University of Memphis. Loves news. Loves food. Loves Pugs. And now, loves Memphis basketball. Go Tigers, Gooooo! Archives
April 2015
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