Recap: this summer my main internship project is called Hometown Stories and I will be pitching stories about all of the interns to their hometown newspapers. I thought I’d explain my project by detailing the various steps in the project and what I have been able to take away from each one.

Step 1: Gather and organize information about the interns and their projects/departments

So the first step is gathering information about all of the other NASM interns and organizing it. The first thing I did was create a massive Excel spreadsheet to organize all of the information, because there are 38 interns at Air and Space and that’s a lot of information! I had some information to start with like name, email address, department and supervisor, hometown and university, but none of this information tells a story. So I had to get more information straight from the source—the interns themselves. I distributed a form to each intern which they completed and returned to me if they wanted to participate in this project.

What I learned from this step of the project is that everybody has something about them that is unique, inspirational or just plain interesting. As I read over the forms each intern filled out, containing answers to questions about their career goals, their internship experiences thus far and other information about themselves they’d like to see included in an article, I learned a lot about my fellow interns and realized what an amazing group of students the National Air and Space Museum assembled for this internship program. Each intern brings something new and refreshing to the table, and I have the unique opportunity to discover and write about their experiences and dreams. This whole process reminded me of the quotation by Robert Goddard in this picture which is on the wall of the Pioneers of Flight exhibition here at NASM: “It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.”

I just know that this intern class is going to do great things. And I am honored to have a part in their story.

On Monday, I presented to my fellow interns about the internship project I have been working on and will work on for a majority of the summer. It occurred to me that I should let you all know as well!

My project is called “Hometown Stories.” It has been an excellent opportunity to get to know all of the other NASM interns, and has taught me a lot about public relations. Basically, what I’m doing is pitching stories about each intern to their hometown newspapers, as well as their college newspapers. The purpose of this project is to generate publicity about the Museum and the internship opportunities available, as well as publicity about each intern because they’re working hard this summer and deserve to be recognized for it.

This project has been an amazing opportunity to truly learn about the process of pitching the media, and to have my hand in each step of the pitching process. This is something I didn’t have any experience in prior to now. Over the course of the next few blogs, I will detail the steps of pitching the media for this particular project, and explain a bit more about my experiences as I have worked on this project.

On the very first day of work, myself and the other interns were trained to use a marketing media database called AdData Express. It is a huge platform that tracks virtually every brand’s spending, national media and contacts for the convenience of marketing agencies. My desk is located in its own little office with a door, a phone, cabinets and everything! Although that doesn’t sound all too exciting, an office of my own amplifies the feeling of importance the interns have here at Brand Influencers! While a desktop computer was provided, many of the interns choose to use their own in addition. It is amazing how efficient we can be with a laptop and a desktop at our disposal!