My First Internship Experience
This was my first year to actually find out what working at a job feels like. My camp, Girls Inc. of Central Alabama, selected me to be an intern at Starnes Media, owned by Dan Starnes. Girls Inc. is a camp for girls that teaches them how to be smart, strong, bold and not being afraid of stepping out of their comfort zone.
My experience started on June 19, 2017 and lasted one month. At first, I wasn’t very excited, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I have always wanted to be a teacher so I expected to be working in a school, but my supervisor Alison Grizzle, director of organizational development, made me feel like I belonged at Starnes and she taught me a lot on how to be professional and also about her role in the company.
Starnes Media has two divisions: Starnes Publishing and Starnes Digital. Starnes Publishing writes seven newspapers for the local community: Village Living, The Homewood Star, 280 Living, Vestavia Voice, Iron City Ink, Hoover Sun and Cahaba Sun. Writing isn’t something I think I am very good at, but I learned a lot of tips that can help me with my writing in the future. Starnes Digital is an agency that creates blogs, websites, videos, graphics and social media postings for their clients, or other companies.
Week One
Week One was an introduction into the company and what they do. Starnes Publishing is a small company that works together as a team to produce well-designed and informative newspapers. I had the chance to work with different people who work throughout the company to make each newspaper successful.
My first day on the job, I talked to Lexi Coon, community reporter, and learned about what she does and the information that goes into each article. Lexi said word count depends on the type of story you are writing. She explained the topics thoroughly to help me understand better. She was very positive and confident in her work, and she made me feel very welcome.
Lexi then introduced me to the people in the digital agency of Starnes, which was my favorite part of the company.The staff that worked in the digital agency made me feel welcome and always had something for me to learn and do.
The digital agency wanted to see some of my ideas of posts for one of their clients. I chose Desoto Caverns because I have been there before and I am familiar with the area and park. I went to their website and chose different pictures to represent the various activities that happen there. Then I came up with short phrases to encourage readers to visit Desoto Caverns and check out the rides, events or cafe. I really enjoyed coming up with creative phrases for each picture.
Week Two
Week Two I was shadowing different people. I shadowed Alison in her role as director of organizational development in Starnes. Alison watches over everyone, receives updates on everyone's assignments and keeps everyone organized. This week Alison educated me about management skills and how to ask specific questions during an interview. Alison is always on top of her work, prepared for meetings and always knows everything happening in the company. She was very professional and approachable.
I also shadowed Lexi for a day and learned how to write in AP Style, which had a lot of rules to follow. Lastly, I shadowed Erica Techo, community editor, for a day. This day I attended a chamber of commerce luncheon and listened to a speaker about a new event they are introducing. Erica and I have a lot in common and she politely answered all of my questions, which helped me understand her role in the company.
Week Three
Week Three was more hands-on, with harder things to do. I experienced how to design a newspaper by spending the day with Melanie Viering, newspaper designer. She introduced me to a program, InDesign, she uses to design newspapers. It was really cool to learn how to fit everything that belongs in a newspaper.
When it was my turn to create a newspaper page, Melanie gave me a story and corresponding pictures to work with. Designing was really fun to do and it gave me a challenge. Melanie was also very sweet and approachable if I had any questions or needed help.
Lastly, I met college interns Lauren Roland and Loren Hopkins and had the challenge of writing 250-word stories explaining the where, when and what of events. Lauren and Loren said I did a great job on condensing all of the information and all my mistakes were just grammar and AP style.
Week Four
Week Four I experienced how to write my own feature story, which is what you are reading now. I learned the process of writing a story and it takes more than two revisions. You do a lot of revising because different people can catch different mistakes.
Once I had my story approved, I went to have my picture taken with Layton Dudley, photographer. She took pictures of me working on my feature story and me holding newspapers outside. I had the chance to choose which picture I admired the most. Writing this feature story took a lot of work, but I enjoyed it because I received good critiques that I can apply to other stories I write in the future.
What I learned
Concluding my internship, I learned a lot of techniques to make my writing better. This internship showed me skills I need to develop for the future, including organization, communication, involvement and social skills. These skills will help me prepare myself for college because I won’t fall behind on my work. I also learned just because you don’t like to write doesn’t mean you shouldn’t learn all you can to help yourself be more prepared.
Learn all you can because the future does not wait. I am so glad I got to do my internship at Starnes Publishing because writing is one of my weaker subjects, and Starnes Publishing taught me how to express myself through writing and how to become a better writer.