Internship Blog

  • About the Blog
  • Contact Us

Monthly Archives: June 2013

Savannah Simons: WTOP

Posted on June 28, 2013 by Posted in Internships, Journalism .

6.28 ElephantThis week I had the opportunity to assist a reporter on a story outside of the newsroom. I was able to return to the National Zoo for the debut of the newest addition to the elephant exhibit, Bozie. Bozie has been reunited with one of the Zoo’s other elephants, Shanthi. Records indicate Shanthi and Bozie lived together as calves in Sri Lanka decades ago.

The reporter I accompanied recorded and emailed a “teaser” in the parking lot before we entered the media event so it would be available for air on time. A teaser is a 5 second introduction to an upcoming story that is supposed to draw the listener in.

We entered the multimillion dollar, state-of-the-art elephant facility to get the first peek at the 37-year-old elephant. After we gathered our sound bites, footage and other interviews, we returned to the car to piece together and finalize the story for an on-air segment that was to air shortly after 12 p.m. Reporters are allotted 35 seconds for an entire segment, and we had a lot of audio we had to choose from. For the first time, I was able to see the process of creating an on-air segment outside of the studio from start to finish. You would think for only a 35 second segment, it would take a matter of minutes. Wrong. It took us over 45 minutes to finalize the segment and have it ready for air. The process is extremely extensive and requires patience, close attention to detail and creativity. We didn’t want to do a story that any other news station had done. We wanted to be original. In the end, I was able to hop in the car on my way home and hear the segment play live, having finished it just minutes before.

Toys, Toys and More Toys

Posted on June 28, 2013 by Posted in Internships, Journalism .

Olivia FrenchThis morning, my organization skills and upper body strength were put to the ultimate test: I had to clean out the P&C toy closet. Since Parent and Child is (surprise) a magazine about kids, we get sent a lot of toys and family-oriented things by various PR people and publicists. The products are then normally stored in the closet or my editor Liz’s office until we use them for a shoot or feature them in the magazine. Already, that’s a lot of stuff, but we are also taking entries for our Gold Star Toy Awards, which requires companies to send us three samples of each toy to be tested. We’ve gotten close to 200 entries, so as you can imagine, the closet and my office were both pretty packed. I somehow managed to fit everything in the closet while making extra room for more entries, but it took me all morning. Ah, the life of an intern. I’m weird in the way that I love cleaning and organizing things though, so I actually enjoyed myself a lot!

This afternoon completely blew my morning out of the water though. I got to attend a press event for a very big toy company to preview one if their new products. I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to talk about it, which is why I’m being vague, but it was a lot of fun, and I got to test the product and talk to a lot of different reps about its various aspects. I went alone, which was a new experience as well. I got introduced as “Olivia French from Scholastic Parent & Child” and seeing how people instantly recognized the magazine’s name was awesome. I was very proud to be representing them. I also felt really official, and most people thought I was an editor, and asked me how long I’ve been working at P&C!

Hometown Stories Project Step 1

Posted on June 27, 2013 by Posted in Internships, Marketing .

6.27 Goddard QuoteRecap: 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.

Intern Project: Hometown Stories

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Posted in Internships, Marketing .

6.19 AmyOn 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.

Powering Up

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Posted in Internships, Marketing .

6.25 DeskOn 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!

Next Page »

Pages

  • About the Blog
  • Contact Us

Archives

  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012

Categories

  • Internships (275)
    • Business (34)
    • Entertainment (19)
    • Finance (6)
    • Interior Design (4)
    • Journalism (42)
    • Marketing (155)
    • Research (23)
      • Chemistry (15)
      • Health and Wellness (8)
    • ROTC/Military (4)

WordPress

  • Log in
  • WordPress

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

CyberChimps WordPress Themes

CyberChimps ©2021