#Interns101: Connections, Patience, and Hard-work

BY: JENNA NEWMAN

This summer I had the opportunity to be an intern for Blue Blaze Marketing Associates located right in Newark, DE! I actually started my internship with them in January and then had it extended through August. The three main things that were reinforced throughout my internship was the importance of connections, patience, and hard work.

Connections

Back in October 2017 Wendy Scott came into our PRSSA meeting in Brown Hall to talk to us about an internship opportunity with DE Wildlands. I know you’re probably thinking now, I thought she said she was working for Blue Blaze, you’re right, I was, it all connects. Anyways, Wendy came in and talked about getting an intern to come in and help her with their main fundraising event of the year, a Bluegrass Music Festival. She was flexible with time and did not care if you had experience. Wendy was ready to help be a mentor to someone and give them experience that they could use in the future.

As a sophomore who had a lot of leadership experience and one communications internship in high school, but nothing other than that, the opportunity sounded perfect. I emailed Wendy that night and linked with her on LinkedIn the following morning. That Thursday I had an interview and soon after I heard that she would love to work with me, she just needed to confirm with her boss.

Patience

October turned into November and November into December and I still hadn’t heard anything else from Wendy. I was hoping to do the bulk of my internship work during January winter session and then I built my spring semester around having time to work, so it was starting to worry me that I hadn’t heard anything.

Soon after the New Year I heard from Wendy that her boss wasn’t giving her definitive answers, but she would love to work with me, so she had a internship position she could offer me at her and her wife’s personal firm, Blue Blaze. I instantly accepted and soon got to work.

I learned how to become a stronger researcher—I did research on what different potential clients we could reach out to, how to develop a media list, how important fact checking is when creating a display. They gave me independence to prioritize the tasks they gave to me and they trusted me to develop content for their new website. They truly cared about not only the work I did, but also my personal life and the steps I was hoping to take within my career. They wanted to play a role in helping me get there. After having patience for what the future would hold for me working for Wendy, I was ecstatic when everything fell together so incredibly.

Hard Work

The harder I worked the more they gave me to do and it was such a rewarding experience.

Before I knew it, the semester had come to an end and I was preparing to go home and spend the summer working before leaving for Cameroon in August. I was sad knowing that my time was coming to an end, but excited to leaving with knowledge and products to add to my portfolio.

A couple weeks before the end of my internship, they sat me down and presented me with a proposition—how would I feel about staying on for the summer? Compensation would be involved because they were aware I would be commuting at the opportunity.

Because of my connections through PRSSA, patience with the process, and strong work ethic, I was able to turn a 4-month opportunity to help with an event into a 7-month internship working with clients ranging from IT companies to small non-profits!