March 20, 2018: Two Weeks Recap What could sometimes be considered the monotony of the workplace was pleasantly broken the past two weeks. There’s been quite a few different events, so I’m going to backtrack a little bit for some context. The K-12 Education Philanthropy Roundtable National Forum was held in Memphis from March 6-7. The past couple weeks were filled with hurried planning and final execution details. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the conference, but more on that in a little bit. I was impressed by the number of tasks that each person had accomplished.
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March 5, 2018: Two Weeks Recap There have been many experiences throughout the past two weeks that have helped shaped my experience here in DC. My internship experience is very similar to the other journal experiences I have listed, but there have been several professional development experiences that have advanced my learning and time in the past two weeks. While often discussed in my conversation, there has no written records of the open house I attended at Brunswick Group. The Brunswick group is a strategic communications consulting firm for corporate clients, both domestic and foreign. They offer a wide variety of skills and talents, including social media promotions, individual client development, and corporate crisis management. The firm had a presentation on February 21st, which I attended with one of my classmates. We were kind of hoping for more of a general intern tips and tricks for students new to DC, but they had a large portion of the presentation dedicated to their own internship program. My classmate didn’t particularly want to pursue that field, but I was super interested to talk to people after the event, follow up, and connect with them on LinkedIn. I applied for the summer internship program and submitted the writing test that is the next step of the application process. This is exciting because it might not be the thing I’m the most passionate about, but it's definitely the area of work that I’ve imagined pursuing since I entered college. It was also cool to meet people in that office who could give advice for both personal and professional development as a communicator. This experience was extremely positive for me; I learned a lot about what PR looks like the work force for corporate communications, and I gained some (what I would consider) valuable connections. I was able to ask several questions and gain knowledge from polished professionals already in the field. (to read more click below!)
February 19, 2018: One Week Recap This past week has been quite the week. I learned several new aspects of the position, and I feel that most of all I am beginning to get the hang of the Washington, D.C. area. One event that I hadn’t tried before was a reception at the embassy of Finland. I attended a CARE reception regarding the development and provision of food supplies to refugees and third world countries, particularly for the country of South Africa. CARE did an impressive job detailing the benefits of putting money into poverty elimination now, and preventing wars in the future. I enjoyed several aspects of the event. First, the Embassy of Finland has a beautiful building and hosting space, and it was very impressive, even during the night hours and in the winter. I had never attended any event like that before, but I was able to meet a couple people from the DC area and I spoke with the COO of CARE who spoke at the event, and met the career diplomat from Finland. This event was definitely out of my comfort zone, because I felt very unprepared and at the bottom of the totem pole, so to speak. Seeing many individuals who appeared to be important individuals on the hill or in the community, and conversing with each other in a very familiar fashion made me feel small and unknowledgeable. I went to the event with my friend Maggie, who is an intern for her congressman from Georgia. She actually surprised me with her outgoing and courageous behavior by approaching people she didn’t know and having no fear about conversation, something I wish to model in the future. to be perfectly honest I pray before every email (to read more click below!)
There have been several experiences at my internship that have been definitive in nature for the development of my professional experience. I think the first experience was my second training day. I went in on a Thursday, and I was given a list of several names, a document of research website tools, and a general structure for donor research formatting. That was it. This was a very sharp learning curve, because I had no idea what kind of research was necessary or how to find it. I had to learn how to use different research databases, and how to read a 990-tax form. The biggest thing I was learning was how to work on my own. I had to set my own deadlines, work without real supervision, and process information in new pathways. the biggest thing i was learning was how to work on my own. (to read more click below!)
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AuthorKurk is exploring communications academically, professionally, and personally. Join him here or on social media to learn more! CategoriesArchives |