Internship Introduction Video
The Marketing and Communications department with Fairbanks School of Public Health really focusses on posting on social media. They post ways students and others can be connected to others in a safe and healthy way, events that are happening and previous alumni news. On their Instagram account, they post stories that get students more engaged. Along with social media, they also have a blog that they post on. On the blog, you can find articles on students that have accepted a Scholarship, school and state events, academics and many others. With my work, I have helped with posting on social media, coming up with blog posts and presenting ideas for Instagram Stories.
Responsibilities/Projects
I have really enjoyed my work I have contributed to my internship. We have a team meeting every week that helps me know what I will accomplish for the upcoming weeks. I have also been connected to other employees in the department via zoom meetings. I have came up with ideas for Instagram stories that have been featured on the account and my main project has been getting my name on the blog site. Check out my work here!
Learning Objectives
I have definitely learned a lot in my internship and most of the objectives I set for myself have been met. I feel more confident in talking to people in a professional manner, especially via the computer. I am learning more about social media on the back end of things and being the one who came up with the ideas. One major objective I had was learning how my personality works with others in a professional way and how I can improve. With this objective, I found it easy to be myself in talking about certain projects as well as being more confident in asking questions if any come up. Being a student, I'm always communicating with others. Whether that's with colleagues or professors. This has been a major component of my internship and my experience with it, has helped. Since I am an intern, being a leader on projects was one of my objectives and I think I can work better at obtaining this objective. I believe the way to reach this, would be at a team meeting, not be afraid to put my input in a certain topic for a post or idea. It's a rewarding experience and I'm excited to see how I can incorporate my accomplishments in any career I go into.
Personal Development
Throughout this experience, I have learned many things. One main thing I have learned was engaging in informational interviews. With doing these interviews, I got more practice in communicating via technology as well as I was able to be more comfortable in asking questions. I feel more prepared for any real world interviews for future jobs. Some contributions I made as I mentioned in the video, are posting social media content, coming up with blog posts and posting them, and creating social media poll questions. An area that I struggled with professionally is asking questions as they came up. I would wait until we had a meeting to ask them when I shouldn't have been afraid to send a quick email. I have learned from this as I will use it in my future career.
Academic Connections
The things I have learned in my classes has prepared me for the role I played in my internship. Some of the content learned includes: COVID-19 Pandemic, using social media as a main platform to post content, being able to communicate using technology and being able to get certain tasks done in a timely manner. Before interning I only had an inkling on what to expect. After this amazing experience I believe taking a course or learning more about using creative sites such as Canva would have really helped me gain more knowledge. A specific course I took my senior year, Career Prep, really helped me be prepared for communicating professionally using technology. In that class we had an informational interview that was via zoom. It was different than in person as you're dealing with any technology issues that may arise. Overall, my experience with this internship has been nothing but positivity throughout the semester and I can't thank my supervisors enough!