Being a Green Bay native, it has always been my dream to attend St. Norbert College. Now I am a third-year student majoring in Communications with a Communications emphasis and minoring in Graphic Design. In May 2007, I began an internship in the Office of Communications. I chose to apply for this job because it sounded like the perfect opportunity for me to pursue my lifelong interests of writing and the media, as well as to put a variety of journalistic and design skills to good use. The purpose of this online journal is to give you a glimpse into the life of an intern in the Office of Communications at St. Norbert College. It is intended to be both informative and helpful for you, whether you are a first-year student wondering what exactly an internship is and what it is that an intern does, an upperclassman who is a fellow intern interested in learning what this particular job is like, or anyone in between. I am thrilled to have the valuable opportunity to share this roller-coaster of an experience online with you. Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

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Archives for: March 2008

Intern Tip #8: Contribute new ideas.

03/30/08 at 12:24:03 pm

Any internship experience comes with the feeling that one is part of something important and professional – an organization. As such, one should feel free to contribute his or her own ideas. After all, the worst that could happen is that they would be rejected, but at least they were put out there for employers to consider.

As an intern in the Office of Communications, I feel that I have always been encouraged to contribute new ideas, whether it is an idea for how to edit a particular magazine paragraph, or an idea for how to present a report to my supervisors. Usually my suggestions are welcomed, but sometimes they are not quite what my supervisors are looking for, and are thus turned down. However, I believe occasions like these have taught me to not be afraid of sharing my own thoughts and ideas. They have helped me become more confident in presenting myself as a hardworking student employee with great ideas to share.

Intern Tip #7: Proofread everything – yourself.

03/30/08 at 12:23:28 pm

In both an internship and a “real world” job, accuracy is key. Employers expect to RECEIVE information that is error-free. The public expects to READ information that is error-free. As an intern in an office that is mainly by the people, for the people, perfection is paramount in all the work that I do. There is absolutely no room for mistakes.

To prevent mistakes from popping up in any office publication, I set the spell checker aside and personally proofread it multiple times. Whether an article for the magazine, a feature of the e-newsletter, or a press release, I run through a mental checklist each time to make sure I have…

…spelled names correctly (“Lyn,” “Lynn” and “Lynne” are all different spellings of the same name).

…spelled city and state names correctly (especially tricky ones, like “Cheyenne, Wyoming”).

…matched the correct titles to the correct people (“Dr.” versus “professor”).

…punctuated sentences and names correctly (like where to put the periods in “Ph.D.” and when to use a semicolon to separate complex sentences).

…used the correct word for what it is I really want to say (“due” and “do” are both real words, but mean different things, so I need to pick the correct word based on what it is I want to say).

Remember, just because spell checkers come equipped in most typing programs does NOT mean they are one hundred percent reliable. After all, THEY are not the ones sitting in classrooms learning the many conventions of the English language!