Cold-calling. Do I need to say more? by Christy

Cold-calling. Do I need to say more?

With the upcoming launch of the magazine's new promotional campaign, Sip 411, a launch party will be help in its honor at Pearl on April 29th. Over 500 invitations were handed out to local restaurants, bars and pubs in the Philadelphia area. The event was originally supposed to be held at Denim nightclub. On 250 "Denim" was printed for the venue. On the other 250 the venue was Pearl. And as the intern and one of the members of the team working of Sip 411 I had the luxury along with the other intern to make phone calls to all 250 of the invitees who received an invitation that said Denim. Not only were we calling to correct the venue but we also were persuading the guests on why the should come. 500 invitations were handed out and we heard back from less than 15 respondents. I tuned into a sales rep for Sip 411 and called 150 of the venues and sold them on why they should come to the event. Out of the all the things I have done at the magazine this was my least favorite. Having good communication skills definitely is a plus so you don't confuse the hell out of the person when you're talking to them. Out of the 150 I brought in 43 more guests; some said they would think about it and call back. Not bad for a first timer.

Sip & Be Seen by Christy

"Sip & Be Seen"

The newest edition to the magazine will be something called Sip 411. Sip 411 will replace "Sip Scene" in the back of every issue in the special advertising section. The purpose of Sip 411 will be to let readers know about various happy hours and drink specials at local bars and pubs in the Philadelphia area. Through a new text-messaging system readers will be able to sign up for, all the information for the perfect happy hour will be right on their cell phones. There is so much planning being done for the launch of Sip 411. The event and launch party will take place on April 29th. All owners and managers of local bars, pubs, etc. are invited to come out and hear about the new program. Not only will this benefit the magazine but will help business as well. Along with the text-message option they are also able to run their ads in the upcoming issues. Getting the word out about the new program is half the battle. A MySpace page is currently being made to promote it. Several advertisements can be found throughout the past issue of the magazine to get readers excited and get them to sign up. I have been working closely with the advertising and marketing department to make sure everything is in order for the April 29th launch. I am been put in charge of designing the MySpace page for all readers and those interested to view and get more information.

Welcome to Internships: Insuring our Future by Chris

In the year 2006 I arrived at Cabrini College in Radnor, Pa. as a naïve freshmen. I decided to move 3,000 miles away from my home in San Francisco, Calif, to attend Cabrini, where I would have the opportunity to play college basketball. Although I did not know how to do laundry, make my bed or live without my parents, I began to take in the lessons life as a college student teaches an individual.

My early times at Cabrini taught me all the necessities of life; in addition I learned one particularly valuable lesson. I learned the importance of listening to our predecessors and not only gaining from their experiences in life but taking their advice and improving our lives.

I heard the name Tom Nerney constantly around campus. I learned about his legacy at the college not only as a talented student-athlete, but also as a loving father, husband and benefactor of his alma mater. To my delight he came to my basketball practice and talked to my team about the importance of working together and not playing as individuals, but as one united group. As he left the gymnasium I thought to myself: I would like to live my life like that man.

Mr. Nerney is the CEO of United States Liability Insurance Group, a Berkshire Hathaway Company. His success is immense, but his humble attitude and love of life are what I hope to find in my life. I stuck to my instinct and I emailed Mr. Nerney. He gave me the opportunity to have an internship at his greatly successful company.
Here is my blog on working as intern at USLI. Each day I work in the insurance industry I take away at least one important life lesson. I would like to share with you the knowledge I have learned, the knowledge I am learning, and my goals for the future.

My Big OOPS! by Alyssa

I had my first Oops today... and HOW embarrassing! This is what happened:

The first of every month, through email, CRS likes to send out what they call JUST Updates. It is basically a flyer updating colleges and universities about different topics to look out for, get involved in or learn about. On the flyer are snippets of information, links to go to and ways to get involved or receive more information. I have done three so far: Fair trade chocolate, PEPFAR and today I created one about the ongoing war in Colombia.

My flyer was the colors of the Colombian flag and it was very nice and eye catching. On it I had links and different events to look out for and get involved in. It was an overall nice piece and everyone in the office loved it. So, we sent it out on our email list to at least 30 different universities.

This is where my heart stopped. My supervisor immediately got an email saying " Don't you know how to spell Colombia?"

Here, I had spelled Colombia with a U! Columbia! WHAT WAS I THINKING? I panicked and could not apologize enough to my supervisor for making us look bad. We immediately recalled back the emails, hoping no one else read them or picked up on my glaring mistake, and fixed it and sent it back out again... this time with everything spelled correctly.

How embarrassing. The last time I made such a huge mistake was when I did a summer internship at a campground. It was my responsibility to create a scavenger hunt list for the kids. One of the items the children had to find was a t-shirt. Well, I handed out all of the lists to about 100 children and families, and all the sudden I got hell from the mothers. Here I spelled shirt wrong. I wrote SHIT instead!!!!

This just goes to show that you cannot always rely on spell-check to pick up everything, because even though it may not be spelled wrong, still does not make everything correct. However, if you ever find yourself in that kind of situation, you cannot panic. Both times I had apologized, admitted to my mistake, and then quickly take care of the problem before it because too big an issue.

Today I realized that I am not perfect and everyone makes mistakes. At the time it seems like the biggest thing in the world, but 3 hours later I can laugh looking back at it. I got off easy, sometimes those kinds of mistakes can cost a person a job; however I am under the belief that everything will go smoothly if you act smooth.

A Stress-Less Environment by "The Intern"

A Stress-Less Environment

I recently started my spring internship at a broadcasting company. I can't say I went into it with any real expectations, just to do my job well and learn what it's like to work for TV. And now that I've been there for a few weeks, I'm finally starting to feel comfortable with what I'm doing. Of course, I do the mundane jobs of an intern, I make the coffee, clean up after people, run things back and forth all day because my supervisors don't want to and just help out with little tasks. However, I really feel that my internship is giving me a chance to learn more than the average intern.

One thing the interns do is "pull tape." It literally means to pull the tape that's going to be used for a promo off the shelf. Sounds easy, right? I thought so too. Then I realized that there's about 10 different places this tape could be. I have to do a general search to find it, keep narrowing that search down until I find exactly what my supervisor is looking for, only to go to the place I think the tape could be to realize that it's missing. It's not fun, but it's one of the most important jobs to keep the show running. Working on a live show means always expecting the unexpected and dealing with it asap. So pulling tape may seem like an unimportant job, but when there's less than an hour to put promos together and you're the one who can take care of it with little help, this mundane job doesn't seem so pointless.

Aside from jobs like pulling tape, I've had the chance to do things that are really interesting and that I actually enjoy. Every day myself or the other interns update the links and recipes on our site. Aside from that, I've had the chance to upload slideshows and videos as well. Our Web site is one of the top in the country and is seen by people everywhere, so being trusted to keep up the standard isn't something to complain about.

Something I noticed immediately about my company is that they take everything in stride, and I've truly never seen anyone in my department too stressed or overwhelmed. I'm sure they have been, but my preconception about people who worked as journalists or for TV was that they were always working on a deadline and always stressed and grumpy. In less than two weeks my whole perception had changed. Seeing the people who run a live TV show get a call at 9 in the morning saying that their main guest has canceled and watching them simply work around it is amazing. I've never seen anyone shocked that a celebrity and his two band members were supposed to show up by 10:15 but at 10:30 the band members were there and the main attraction is nowhere to be found because he missed his flight. Obviously they don't have a choice but to deal with it, but the way that things are dealt with keeps the whole environment very calm and professional, and so far it is the one thing that has had the most profound effect on me.

"My Life" by Alyssa -- interning at an international social justice agency

My Life

My experience at my internship so far has been above and beyond my expectations. I have had internships before, but none that had me as involved as this one. I find myself looking forward to Wednesdays now just because I never know what task i will be dealing with in the office. Some days I am working on fair trade, the next it's malaria issues in Africa, and now it's Iraqi refugees in Syria and Lebanon. It also helps that the staff and my director that I am working with are just so eager to share their knowledge with me.

This Tuesday, Founder's Day, is just going to top everything off. I am so excited to meet the president of the organization I am working for, and also with Ishmeal Beah, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone. I have weaseled my way into every possible event they may be attending on Tuesday just because I want to learn everything I can about their work. I have made the ultimate decision on what I want to do with my life after interning, and I am now ready to hear how others feel about the work they do.

I have always felt the need to help people internationally, and for the longest time struggeled with the big question: What do I want to do with my life?

Everyone seems to have an opinion on what i should do:
1. Go for the job that will offer the most money!
2. Become a teacher
3. Be a news anchor
4. Do what makes you happy (for a long time i did not now what that was)
5. Take a job in the area, because we do not want you to move far away

Well, it's time for me to do what I want. I want to work in the non-profit sector to help advocate for the protection of children's rights. You hear too many horror stories about children being abducted and forced into child labor, slavery, prostitution, or used as soldiers. It's awful and it should be stopped and someone needs to be a voice for these children who have had that voice stolen from them. There is only one problem... how do I go about doing this? Not only that, but when I tell people that this is what I want to do, I get a lot of funny looks and people saying "Well, there is not a lot of money to be made in that field."

I do not care about pay. I need enough money for an apartment and food and gas and that is it. Right now I am paying for all of those things singlehandedly by babysitting and bringing home maybe $800 a month. As long as I have enough money to get by, the only thing I want to do is to be an activist for children. I am no longer going to listen to other people tell me how I should run my life. Interning here has opened my eyes to so many issues in the world that are going on unaddressed; I want to be there to help.

Fashion Forward by Christy

Thursday was probably the craziest day at the magazine I have seen so far. To start off the morning our building gave us each a BIG bag of Hershey Kisses to start off a wonderful Valentine's Day...but the rest of the day was not so wonderful.

In our upcoming issue we have what we call "Fashion Forward" - 3 months out of the year some of the biggest names in fashion run an ad in our magazine to promote their new line of clothing, in this case their Spring line. The magazine typically has about 11-12 fashion ads but this issue we have about 16, which is huge and also great for the magazine. What's not so great is waiting until the very last minute to get some of the ads in. Ship day is Friday which basically means if you ad doesn't get in our hands by Friday - it might get cut from the issue. We have deadlines that need to be met and for some reason at 3 p.m. on Thursday we were still sitting around waiting for some of the last minute ads. 10 e-mails and probably close to 30 phone calls later we had all 16 of the fashion ads in. They all needed to be fact-checked and then sent overnight to the publisher, who is vacationing in Florida so she can layout what the front of the issue will look like. On top of these 16 ads, others were coming in like crazy - a lot of fact-checking was needed.

Overall the day ended pretty well - the most important part of the day was getting all the fashion ads in. It looks like it is going to be a great issue. Whoever thought fashion could make me want to rip my hair out?

Leads, Counter Cards & Media Kits

This is a posting from Christy at a magazine advertising co-op:

On Thursday, I learned about leads. Leads are a huge part of the advertising business. A lead is a person who calls inquiring about information for the magazine. A sheet must be filled out with information from the caller. Usually these callers are looking for rates for running an ad in the magazine. My supervisor showed me how she took down information for a lead. After showing me she let me call back all the leads that left voicemails over night. I took down all the information and gave them to the correct account executive. After you have the information they must be filed into a “Lead Book” so they can be easily reached at any time. The final billing was also due this day for many of the advertisers from the last issue. I took care of typing a Word document up for each advertiser stating their remaining balance on their ad. I worked with some sales coordinators as well to determine how much money was made in each category of advertisements (fashion, food, travel, etc.) from 2007. This was interesting because I could see where the majority of revenue for the magazine came from.

Counter cards needed to be completed today. It is very important that the counter cards are displayed immediately after the magazine releases because it gives time for others to see our work in the magazine and potentially run their ads with us for the following month. After coming up with the basic layout for the counter cards I delivered them to the art department production. Media-kits needed to be prepared for shipping for our March potential advertisers. About 50 media-kits needed to be made all with different specifications and topics of interest. After making the media-kits I worked on producing something called an “e-mail blast." An e-mail blast is a type of advertisement that gets sent to a person's e-mail address. For this particular e-mail blast the advertisement was for a wedding dress trunk show that will be happening in early February. We took all the e-mail addresses from the previous trunk shows in 2007 and compiled them into one excel spreadsheet so we knew whom to send the e-mails to.

Got Commission ? ? ?

By Ashley Randazzo

The Phone Call

I received a phone call mid-afternoon one day from a phone number I didn't recognize. I picked up and it was this direct marketing firm trying to get me there for an interview. They told me they found my resume on careerbuilder.com. I got excited and went home for the weekend to explore this exciting and new opportunity, or so I thought it.

Interview Day

Put on my nice new suit, heels and I was off to this interview. Got there pretty early and just chilled out for a few. As soon as I walked in I was handed a clipboard with an application attached. The receptionist asked me to fill it out and attach my resume. O.K., not bad yet. As I was sitting there, the same receptionist was surfing Career Builder and calling random people she found on the site for the same job I was applying for. Same spheel she said to me and everything.

It was my turn for the interview and I went in, sat down, and had a great interview up until the portion where it was my turn to ask the questions. I asked if this was technically a sales job, and my interviewer said yes. Then I absolutley had to ask this undying question in my brain, "Is my compensation a salary or commission?" He replied, "commission." I froze. And he also knew I wasn't pleased, because the next thing he asked me was, "Does something worry you about that?" Of course I said yes. All of a sudden he was telling me something about some selling principle thing where mathmatically I would be making at least $150 a day. He was literally trying to sell me this job. Are you kidding me?!?!? That's what I felt like saying. I just smiled and nodded. I then thanked him for his time, shook his hand, and I went on my way.

The Call

Oh it's not over yet. The gentleman who interviewed me called me around 5:30, a few hours after my interview, and offered me the job. Politely I refused the job and asked him to keep me in mind if something else comes up that's salary based.

The Lesson

ASK IF THE POSITION IS COMMISSION ! ! ! In fact, I just got a call today regarding another "marketing firm" for the same position, "account manager." Go figure! I asked if the position was commission based and the person said that she was unauthorized to give me that information. So I told her, "Well then I'm not authorizing myself to waste my time." I told her to have a nice day and hung up, that was that.

Maria: Slap It Down!

It may sound vulgar, but that’s what my editor told me to do when it comes to my writing—slap it down. Don’t think. Don’t edit. Don’t hesitate. Just slap it down. This new style or approach to my writing made a huge difference. Now I write whatever comes to my head. I don’t write articles based on my notes anymore. I write my articles based on the information from my interviews that goes through the filter of my brain. Try it. The next time you have an assignment, just write down as much as you know.
The other pointer I’ve learned—create an outline. How simple is that?! Well, it took me almost 22 years to realize that’s what people do to get a streamlined, focused story… Looks like I have some work to do in the writing department, but I know that with these new approaches, I will become a stronger writer. Hopefully.

Back it Up! Jillian Milam

As an intern, it is always a great feeling to learn that a recent Request for Information (RFI) I worked on turned into a Request for Proposal (RFP). In other words, if I provide a client with quality information in an RFI response, the client will become interested and ask for more detailed information in an RFP, to help them further in choosing a Clinical Research Company to conduct their proposed trial. In summary, if an RFI turns into an RFP, it is one step closer to winning big business! So, when I learned that we received an RFP from a client we previously submitted an RFI to, I felt satisfied and happy to be part of potential new business growth.

However, as it turned out, the client wanted a detailed listing of our trial experience we claimed to have. We told the client we had 35 trials in their particular therapeutic area of interest; however, we did not keep record of how we came to that number. I realized the seriousness of the situation when I saw that we truly only had 3 relevant trials – not 35. Big difference. The situation was brought to everyone’s attention, including the client, and we handled it as best we could. Yes, we only had 3 directly relevant trials, but we also had 34 indirectly relevant trials that we provided to the client as supplemental information. There were many lessons involved with this situation for me, but the most important was the value of keeping supporting evidence for every single RFI or assignment. This industry values accurate figures and evidence to back those figures up.

Although this obstacle seemed as if it were the “end of the world,” causing me to have sweaty palms and a ridiculously fast heartbeat for the good portion of the day, we overcame it as a team and dealt with it in an honest, straightforward manner.

Much more than I expected

I know I haven’t been very helpful with blogging on this website, but today I have a free moment to gather my thoughts and share.

So, this is my very first (and sadly last) internship ever. I’m a little bit upset that it is my only because I really see the value of internships now that I have one. The one I have now though is probably the best one.

I’m a news reporter for my local newspaper. It’s completely different than I thought it would be and completely different from The Loquitur. What they have given me to do (and they keep me pretty busy) are mainly feature-type news stories and occasionally biz.

I found that at first I was really uptight and scared about going to meet random people in Chester County to interview them. But after I did it for a couple times, I realized that it wasn’t so bad. People were very happy about being in the news and were more than happy to help me out too.

I find that the most rewarding part of being a reporter is when you finish your story. To get in the last sentence of your article in is the best. At first there is slight writer’s block, the lead is always the hardest. But once I start writing it’s awesome. I like to sit back and think, “hey maybe I really can do this.” Without this internship I don’t think that I would have the opportunity to find this out about myself. During my J1 and J2 courses, researching and writing the articles sometimes seemed less than desirable. But I have changed my mind about it. It’s exciting!

As part of something that I have started for my own benefit, I have begun to pull aside people I work with and do mini-interviews. It’s amazing how much you find out about people and where they have come from. Usually they say something like “It just kind of happened and I stuck with it and I love it.” Everyone is also always happy to help me out. I found out that many of the reporters were not even communication majors in college. There were some who were political science, English and even Biology! Crazy how they ended up at a paper.

That’s about all I can think of at the moment. But, I’m definitely happy about what I’m doing.

Self-motivation: Daina

It's always easy when you have someone else delegating work to you, but what happens when you're given almost complete creative freedom or your supervisor is out of town and trusts that you will be productive? I spent about two weeks designing an eight-page newsletter that will circulate to about 16 countries! Talk about pressure. I'm used to my simple Perspectives Loquitur pages, but eight pages of newsletter was intense. We had planning meetings to discuss the content and targeted audience, and the higher powers made plenty of suggestions, but I was ultimately depended upon to create something amazing from a few pictures, missioner reflections, some other materials, and a news article that I wrote, and keep my fingers crossed that everyone liked it. Instead of running to my boss every time I wasn't sure, I had to instead, push through, make crucial decisions and produce a quality media material...and that is how I spent my spring break!!! Then I learned that my supervisor would be away for an entire week. With no one to go to for direction in my work, the secretary and I worked together to make the most of our time. I worked on office tasks, but I also stepped back and looked at the bigger picture. I was able to get some very important, but time consuming tasks out of the way so that when my boss returned we could jump right back on track. We, as students, don't go to Cabrini to learn how to be work horses. Along with our education, we have received and practiced the ability to be creative thinkers and self-motivators. We will be the supervisors and bosses someday, and the ability to be creative and productive thinkers is and always will be imperative to our success.

The Calm Before the Storm - Jillian Milam

After months of doing the relatively same work at my internship, I started to feel a sense of familiarity and comfort with my responsibilities. It was nice - I was feeling fluent with scope of work, I could easily handle any task that came my way, the Requests for Information were slow but steady, deadlines were few and far between, things were good. Do you get the feeling that something bad is about to happen? You felt right.

What appeared to be a normal workweek for the Business Development Writers turned out to be a whirlwind of Requests for Information, Requests for Proposals, and anything else you can imagine. The phrase, “the calm before the storm” took on a whole new meaning for me.

Just as we would get one assignment out the door, three assignments would come knocking. The requests were extremely detailed and time consuming. As a team, we tackled the assignments by dividing and conquering. It just so happened that Cabrini’s Spring Break landed right in the middle of this hurricane of assignments, so I was fortunate enough (or unfortunate enough, however you want to look at it) to be there. I like to think that I played a major role in taming the storm and I am glad that I had the opportunity to be a part of the team when it mattered the most.

So what did I learn from this experience? Other than the fact forty cups of tea and lots of chocolate help get the job done? I learned that, first of all, offering up your precious Spring Break time can be well worth it when it comes to making a lasting impression on potential employers. Secondly, it feels good to get things done within given timelines, even when it seems impossible. Last but not least, I learned to stay on my toes. I learned that when familiarity and comfort sets in at work, we cannot let it affect our motivation and ability to surpass. Enjoy and embrace fluency with work, but never kick back and relax. Just when you least expect it, a surprise might be looming around the corner.

Saved the day

Even though I have been feeling overwhelmed with school and my internship, I have noticed that I am a valid part of a team. Just last week, one of the graphic designers quit out of no where at our sister company, and there I was, my iBook in hand. I have been learning a lot. A lot of it is writing, but even more, is the experience I am getting.

Earlier this month, we had a trade show all the way in Dallas, Texas. I had no idea what went into planning a trade show. I was the one who set everything, from the shipping of the booth to the very last detail about how many electrical outlets we were going to need. Although I was doing some important things for planning, I also had to do some "intern duties" as well. This included getting postcards printed and then putting 1,000 address labels on them by hand, for shipment before the end of the day. I finished it, and many of the receivers brought their postcard to the trade show, which my boss liked and thanked me for. For my first trade show, I don't think I did half-bad. According to my boss who I was planning this escapade for, it went on without a snag.

I think overall, my experience has been a positive one. I feel important, and I'm glad I'm not just making copies and coffee all day long. I am working on some upcoming projects with search engine optimization, and I am excited to learn a new skill.

So far I am satisfied with the hands-on experience

So far I have been really enjoying my internship, I currently got to attend and help organize the "Meet the Phillies" even which was held at the National Constitutional Center. Although I do not work for the Phillies, since baseball season is approaching, my internsip's main projects right now is to market the Phillies. I really enjoy seeing and being involved with the 'behind the scenes' on what it takes to organize and market the events. I have been currently creating my own marketing plan for the Philadelphia Phillies and I have to present my ideas to a few of the marketing managers at my internship.
Due to my experience with interning with two sports teams; I got a first-hand look on different marketing styles, promotions, and events. Therefore, I plan to apply my knowledge to my future projects and assignments. I felt useless at my last internship because all they had me do was administrative work such as send out faxes, update databases, and stuff envelopes. Although I do some of that work at my current internship, I receive more projects that relate to marketing/public relations and event planning. I also get to help put people on tv at events/promotions and look at videos and make edits for changes the production manager may need to make for future shows.

Laura Van De Pette: I just want to know!

Tuesday, February 6, 2007
7:30am – 5:30pm

So I found out today that because we are no longer doing consumer PR for our client, our budget is obviously much less than what it was in December when I was asked to intern through the Spring semester. So I won’t be working on Wednesdays anymore which kind of stinks since I really liked participating in the teleconference with our client. The AE explained that with the addition of Tim, the new account executive, and a smaller budget, the team is being forced to cut wherever possible. I’m disappointed but there is not much I can do.

I also found out from the director of human resources that she will know whether or not I can be hired full-time by April 1. Nancy, the president of PR at Dorland won’t have the staff plan complete till then and won’t know her need for an account coordinator till the plan is finalized. I’m keeping my fingers crossed tight and I’m glad that I’m being kept in mind, but I think the best thing to do between now and then is to apply to several other agencies and keep all options open. I will be so relieved when this whole job process is over with; I just want to have a full-time job so I can stop stressing over it for a little while. It's like being stuck in limbo, I have no idea where I'm going or how I'll end up there, but I know it's going to happen; I just wish it was happening now!

You Have a Lot to Offer - Jillian Milam

When researching the definition of the word intern, one might come across two options, as Dictionary.com defines it. Definition number one: “to restrict to or confine within prescribed limits, as prisoners of war, enemy aliens, or combat troops who take refuge in a neutral country.” Now, as interns or co-ops, we might oftentimes feel like prisoners of war, trapped behind enemy lines, bullets flying over our heads with no escape and no way out - but my guess is that definition number two might be more suitable for our needs right now as college students: “a person who works as an apprentice or trainee in an occupation or profession to gain practical experience, and sometimes also to satisfy legal or other requirements for being licensed or accepted professionally.”

If you are currently an intern or have been researching the possibility of obtaining an internship, then you are already all too familiar with these key words – “to gain practical experience; trainee; accepted professionally.” While we are pointing out the obvious, we might as well say that as interns, our sole purpose during this stage of life is to absorb. We are to act like sponges, if you will, on the lookout for available water (referring to knowledge, to be brutally obvious). We are to soak up that water, or knowledge, whenever we have the chance and take it all in. We are here to learn, to become “accepted” in the professional world.

Although this definition may feel a bit condescending, making interns almost comparable to wide-eyed babies that know nothing but with the help of an internship, we will learn the ways of the world - many of these notions hold much truth and validity – believe it or not. We are here to learn. To observe. To gain knowledge and invaluable experience.

However, one must also keep in mind that as interns, our job is not only to learn – it is also to bring to the table the skills that we have already acquired through our educational backgrounds. I know, I know. It may seem corny; maybe even a little trite. We are just college students. What do we know about the working world? What do we know about the business we want to someday join? What do we have as meager students to contribute? It might be typical to ask ourselves these daunting questions, which is why I want to share with you some words of wisdom I would have loved to have heard as I embarked on my internship journey back in September 2006 – You are smart. You are already successful. Just from college alone, you have gained so much knowledge, so many skills, so many abilities applicable to the professional world, any company would benefit from your presence. You have a lot to offer.

A bit extreme, you might say? Well, not really. At the risk of sounding trite once again, I will say that we Cabrini students are lucky to have a professionally-driven school to prepare us for what really counts – life after college. If you put a good amount of effort into your academics, (keep it up seniors, only three months until graduation!) then you have what it takes to be a successful and contributing intern. Yes, we are here to learn as interns. Yes, we are somewhat like sponges, or wide-eyed babies that need help along the way. But hey, you know what? We are intelligent sponges and babies. We might be mere college students; we might be younger than our soon-to-be co-workers; we might not know everything about the field we are about to join. Even though we might feel a sense of inferiority as interns sometimes, we need to remember that we are valuable. We have fresh ideas and skills that will benefit employers to no end.

So instead of feeling like a trapped POW, using camouflage to blend in, hiding from enemies, trying to dodge the bullets, take a deep breath and go after the internship with all you have. Be confident in yourself and the skills you are capable of bringing to the table. Learn on little POWs, or interns, rather. Learn on and contribute the skills you already possess!

It's like a long interview

It’s the beginning of my third week at my new internship and things got off to a pretty slow start. At my other internships I was thrown into my job right away. There was no adjustment period; I had a list of things to do. At this internship, things have been slow up until today. I finally got to write a press release! Before that I was just helping out, doing little things, nothing that involved writing. I was starting to feel a little discouraged because I really wanted to write something or anything.

Going three weeks without having to write anything made me appreciate how much I actually do like to write. Sometimes I need to be reminded of that.

My first press release was for one of our larger clients, so I felt excited that they trusted me with a client like that. I think one of the reasons they gave it to me to do was because I sat down with my supervisor and went over my co-op objectives. My supervisor even commented on how impressed she was with Cabrini’s co-op system, that it was organized and they really wanted to make the sure the student was learning. I talked to my supervisor about the goals I have while I am here and I think it showed her that I can and want to handle a lot of responsibility.

Although they have not had much for me to do up until today, it still did not stop me from constantly asking, “Can I do anything?” My friends who have graduated and have real jobs now have interns of there own. They constantly remind me what a good intern should NOT do. I feel lucky having that outside opinion given to me, because it doesn’t let me forget that internships are like long job interviews and you need to be willing to do whatever is asked of you with a smile and immediately.

Tunomukwathi Asino: The beginning

When I first saw the marketing intern position advertised for Main Line Life newspaper, I decided to apply for it. I got the position. Main Line Life is a weekly newspaper based in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. The newspaper covers the Main Line.

My current assignments are helping revise the media kit of Main Line Life. Apart from that I am also helping revise their special sections, such as fashion, bridal guide and prestigious properties.

I read through the media kit and the sections and critique them. I also make suggestions to make them more appealing to readers and advertisers.

Some of the assignments I work on from campus. I work with a co-intern. I do not see her as often, but we keep in touch by e-mail.

So far I love everyone at my internship. I love working with my boss and my co-intern. I am excited, and look forward to be learning to all there is about sales.

My interests are in journalism. I decided to get a marketing internship so that when I get a writing job I will know both the advertising and the editorial perspective of the business, in order to have a true understanding of the overall operations of the business.

Laura Van De Pette: I need to redeem myself!

Tuesday, January 23, 2007
A new account executive started yesterday and I had to train him on daily monitoring since he will be doing it when I’m out on Mondays. It was kind of cool to train someone else instead of always being the one trained.

The team is preparing for a meeting tomorrow with a managed care consulting agency. We are meeting with them to discuss managed care outlets and how to reach them since no one has experience in that area. It is much more complicated than any trade pub are we have ever targeted. Managed care is the business side of medicine and largely deals with cost-effectiveness and the efficacy of drugs. Managed care attempts to lower the rate of medicare inflation and we want to target them because our biggest competitor, is going generic and we need our drug to be the choice brand on health insurance policies. This is our client’s most important initiative this year.

With all that confusing stuff in mind, I was asked to go through a few managed care publications and pull some key insights that would be helpful. This of course was impossible since I felt like I was reading Japanese. I had absolutely nothing to offer the team in way of insights. The team had a powerpoint slide set aside in their presentation and they were waiting for my comments, but I had none. None that were very insightful anyway. I felt useless.

Luckily I reedmed myself... I came across an important press release that generated alot of wire coverage and found a mistake in Bloomberg's story. I was able to conatct the reporter and send her a fact sheet for our drug and the website was updated within ten minutes. The team said I averted what could have been a major problem since Newsday always picks-up Bloomberg stories a day later. They were right, the next day Newsday had printed the story, but with the correct info.

Redeemeing yourself is an intern's number one responsibility sometimes.

Cabrini Communication Co-op Students

Cabrini's communication department has one of the best established and most respected co-op programs in the region because of the way students are carefully prepared and supervised.

Because Philadelphia is the 4th largest media market, students interested in marketing, public relations, advertising, television production, radio, journalism, editing, magazine/journal writing, graphic design, event planning, and sports communications gain magnificent professional experiences through co-operative education.

Our collaborative relationship with Philadelphia media and business industries has grown over the last decades. We have had the pleasure of continually referring students to reputable co-op placements. A small sample of the co-op sites that regularly hire our students include: The American College, Gregory FCA, Main Line Today, Main Line Magazine, Merion Publications, Girl Scouts of Freedom Valley, Philadelphia Barrage, RSVP, the radio stations, Comcast-Spectacor, the Philadelphia sports teams, Arena-Vision, Paula Hian Design, Banyan Productions, WHYY, NBC 10, and JM Fox.

Here are some of our current students out on co-ops. We invite you to read about their experiences.