Journal
July 1st was a curious mix of project and office work. Michelle Fryling conducted an encouraging review of my work so far. Dr. Stiegler also dropped by to interview me about the experience of the internship. His feedback was positive as well. I had to deal with a technical transition. IUP placed a new computer in my office. This meant that the files I’d been creating were copied to a new location. However, I was not yet aware of where they’d been placed. I went to check with Eric but he was not in. I’m still learning the best way to communicate with my coworkers. Email seems to be an effective way to reach people, but more urgent needs can be handled by running up the hall. Most of the office work I did today centered on the Culinary Dean’s List for the Web.
I was able to get the web-list mostly completed. Tomorrow I’m hoping to focus on press releases. Overall I was very pleased with how the midterm review went and I was able to knock out a project. My skills seem quite sufficient for this internship, especially in the research area. This job requires little technical expertise and I haven’t had to give any oral presentations. Michelle was especially pleased with my performance in this area. An area for improving my productivity (in my opinion though no one has spoken to me about it at work) would be to listen to fewer podcasts even when I’m doing relatively mundane activities such as data entry. Today, while blogging, I want to make sure that I take time to reflect on some questions from the course syllabus. Before the end of the internship, I’d like to propose helpful improvements to the the press release delivery system. This will help me meet my professional goals by sharpening my problem solving skills. This will make me more valuable to the new colleagues and professional connections I’ve made this semester such as Chris Noah, Chief Media Officer, and Michelle Fryling, Executive Director of Media Relations. One way to improve my networking opportunities and skills would be to attend more meetings (I’ve only ever participated in one discussion based meeting that included people other than Stephanie and Michelle).
Overall, I think this internship has helped meet the goals of the MS in Strategic Communication by exposing me to the inner workings of a media relations organization as it supports a university through a major re-brand. While I haven’t had much opportunity to lead, I have had the chance to support Michelle and Stephanie by strategizing about how and when we make media releases. An important thing I’ve learned on this internship, is the importance of asking questions and perseverance over the long haul. The media contact data collection project took a long time.
Log
9:21-2:20
