The Waiting Is Over

By Cassie Lenski, Tuesday, May 22, 2012, at 4:23 pm.

Anticipation, they say, is often more nerve-wracking than completing the task. I, along with three other interns, could not wait to start working with @erwwpr and One Young World. Feeling on top of the world as we stepped into the castle-looking PPG Place, we began our summer adventure.

As you might know, the One Young World summit is being held in Pittsburgh on Oct. 18-22, 2012. Our main goal as interns is to increase visibility for the summit through traditional and social media coverage. As communication, public relations and journalism students, we were ready to hit the ground running to educate the Pittsburgh community about this great event.

We do get to work with @erwwpr’s other clients as well. After an exciting first week here, I have a few tips for interns, especially PR interns:

• Make sure your skills are known. The first day, the agency needed help editing videos for a client. I have taken some classes on video editing and am familiar with the technology, so I offered to work on the videos. By doing this task, my supervisors know I have another helpful skill, and the clips were seen and approved by @erwwpr’s mid-Atlantic president. Plus, it feels pretty great to know you were an integral part of completing an important project.
• Volunteer for everything. Show your supervisors that you are eager to work, especially with a positive attitude—even if it is folding letters or making copies (I acquired many paper cuts that day).
• Carry a notepad everywhere. I am already neurotic about writing things down and making lists, but it is especially important for this job. There are tons of little tasks you are asked you to complete. Even if you think your mental note-taking is good, write it down.

The One Young House posts on our blog document the experiences of four students participating in a unique and immersive internship with @erwwpr in Pittsburgh. Our main project is promoting the One Young World summit, a pro bono initiative of @erwwpr and Havas that’s coming to Pittsburgh in October. We will be sharing our experiences with traditional and social media relations, grassroots events and community presentations while living together as a team, operating out of One Young House.

[photo: Cassie Lenski]

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012 at 4:23 pm. It is filed under CSR, Features, Media, One Young House, PR, Social Media, Youth and tagged with communication, interns, internship, journalism, One Young House, One Young World, Pittsburgh, public relations, video editing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.