Growing up in a small town, I have always loved being involved in as many things as possible. I am very passionate about learning, meeting new people, and helping the community and the individuals within it. Whether it’s a chance to help out a friend or learn more about someone's experiences, I am always excited for the opportunity to gain a new perspective by engaging with the community around me. 

When I stumbled upon the time in college to find an internship, I was left scrolling through countless jobs with obscure titles, questioning what I wanted to do for the remainder of my years. With applications and cover letters flying from my fingertips, I simply hoped and prayed that one would land that I might mildly enjoy (and get paid for). 

After a series of interviews and a brutal rejection from General Motors, I was left sulking around, waiting for the next interview in which to list my strengths and weaknesses. On a lucky Friday in November, I was called up by a Hilton recruiter, offering me a position after my initial interview for a communications role at their main headquarters. I was floored. Following up with a quick “absolutely yes” and “thank you so much”, I immediately circled back to my computer to find the actual internship description for which I had verbally agreed to. 

Ah, Americas Communications Intern - focus in public relations. Whatever the hell that meant. With only one year of the Writing minor under my belt, few experience in staying at some DoubleTree and Hampton Inns during my lifetime, and having completed a random assortment of communication electives, I felt ill prepared. What was public relations?  

After a summer full of new experiences and a lot of learning about publics and relations and all the media variations that come along with each, I knew I had found a passion within the communication field. Having landed myself onto a team of seven strong, professionally and personally, badass women, I felt supported and appreciated, although I was learning as I went. After spending countless hours sorting through media contacts, writing and rewriting descriptive paragraphs, and formatting and editing press releases right up to their release dates, I was pushing a vast amount of media into the public. In addition, I was constantly tracking and marking each publication or syndication of every article we published. 

As part of my internship, I wanted to track the most amount of reach when pushing out an article. That meant covering a variety of good journalists and outlets while crafting a media list, making sure a large range of audiences were exposed while pitching the content, and verifying that each article, soundbite, and headline was tracked. I wanted everyone to read what I was making known to the public, from hotel renovations to new hotels in Times Square.

That being said, for my summer internship, I was focused on releasing a new themed suite to the public, in partnership with Disney Theatrical Group and Aladdin the Musical. Each aspect of the suite was draped in colorful clothes or adorned with former show props, such as the magic lamp or snake-covered side tables. It was a beautiful room with a lot of detail, and each guest renting the room would get box tickets to the show as well. After months of prepping the press release, crafting a list of suitable media outlets or journalists to cover the new suite, and checking and rechecking the images and details, the release went live. 

On my list of things to do, tracking the media coverage of the Aladdin Suite was my top priority. Each clip was cut, recorded, and displayed in a large recap of my summer’s work, and I wanted my final presentation to display how many people had read about my team’s newest suite collaboration. As I shared earlier in this capstone project - I am not a fan of media over consumption. I initially felt conflicted on this task, although I still pushed for mass consumption of the Aladdin Suite articles. 

With a billion additional moving parts and a lot of tracking alerts mentioning anything “Aladdin” and “Hilton”, we had collected over sixty media placements, with a potential reach of over 615 million readers and viewers. Hundreds of millions of people got to read about this suite, and it was because of the work that my team and I had done. 

Although not everything in life is focused on gaining viewers on a new video or hoping to get a lot of reads on your next blog, my summer was full of pushing out new media and making sure a large amount of people consumed it. After reading this piece, I assume you may misinterpret why I love what I do when I simultaneously find that over consumption creates a world of missed opportunities. But in my specific experience, it is all about creating the experiences that go alongside what my team and I are pushing out into the world. After tracking all of the coverage on the suite, I spent a lot of time looking through footage from the journalists who got to stay in the suite before it was released to the public - better known as “first stays.” 

In these first stays, I was overwhelmed with joy, seeing each journalist cart their kids along to the suite and the musical, faces bright as ever with excitement as they got a personalized Genie call upon arriving or a magic mocktail with shimmering gold flakes at the hotel bar. Each consumer of this release could potentially be one more smiling face experiencing the Aladdin Suite and Aladdin the Musical. 

Although I may not be used to the idea that aspects of my job can relate to media over consumption, I do feel firm in the fact that my team is focused on creating experiences for others. When forecasting what I would do in the future, I never knew that I’d be tracking mass consumption of articles written about hotel experiences. I didn't really have any clue what I would be doing, but I am fortunate I can work for a company that continually offers people new experiences. 

While I was never sure on my destined career path, I did have three main things that I wanted to do daily in my career: talk with as many people as possible, write a lot, and serve others. So, in a world filled with endless consumption of things, places, and information, I can work diligently, knowing that I may have created a new opportunity of enjoyment, acceptance, and fulfillment within someone’s life, all due to experiencing a stay at Hilton.