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.