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Emily E.

Roberts
ENC 4942
Spring 2015
Internship Reflection
Working at the Communications Office at The Florida State University
School of Law has been a very rewarding experience. I was happy to go to work
every Tuesday and Thursday and was fortunate enough to have had two
extremely kind, professional, and patient supervisors. The Communications
Office produces several publications throughout the year. I worked alongside
Christi Morgan, the Director of Communications, and Rachael Seitz, who serves
and the Assistant Director of Communications.
I performed many roles while working at the Communications Office. One
of the most time consuming was putting together the Alumni Notes. These
Alumni Notes go in the alumni magazine, which is a bi-annual publication.
These notes are made to inform readers about what some of the alumni are up to
today and to recognize the accomplishments of alumni. When my boss would
receive e-mails about the accomplishments different alumni had made she would
forward them to me. I spent several weeks organizing this information, checking
the validity of it, and writing out what exactly they had done. I utilized the alumni
dictionary to make sure all name spellings and graduation dates of the various
alumni were being documented correctly. In this particular issues alumni from
1970-2015 were recognized for their achievements. After I finished writing out all
of this information it went through several rounds of further fact checking,
formatting, and editing; which I was able to participated in. I feel this was a great
experience because it allowed me to practice how to write professionally.
Another form of professional writing I had to do was organizing and
composing Media Hits. Media Hits are statements recognizing faculty for their
outstanding work. This can range from having been asked to speak at a
symposium to being quoted or published in a scholarly journal. These
achievements were typically e-mailed to my boss and then forwarded to me to
document. I also had to locate the logos for the websites on which the faculty had
published work. These media hits are then uploaded onto the law schools
website.
One of my daily jobs was updating the law schools online calendar. My
boss would print out the daily events and give them to me to be re-typed into the
calendar. This was a fun activity because I got to see what the different
organizations and clubs on campus were up to.
Another job I had almost daily was going to different events to take
pictures. These events were usually networking noshes where established
alumni came to talk to students and gave students the opportunity to ask them
questions. Going to these events was also educational for me as a prospective
law student because I also got to hear the advice from the alumna. I typically
took about thirty pictures at each of these events. After, I would upload the
pictures to the computer and choose which ones I thought were best. Then, I
would Photoshop the best pictures so they would be ready for use if anybody
needed them. This was a good experience because I got to play around on

Photoshop. I had not used Photoshop in a few years so I was a bit rusty. At first, I
did not know exactly what to do, but after a while of playing around on the
program and searching on Google how to use certain tools I was able to figure
out how to manipulate the program for my purposes.
Something I got to do while interning at the Communications Office that
was a more rare opportunity was working on re-doing the law schools website.
This was the first time that the website has been re-done in several years. It was
a hard and long process to get the new website up and running, but it was
accomplished after a few months. I was able to go sit in on a meeting with the
programmers because my bosses wanted someone there who was close to what
a prospective student looking at the website would be. It was interesting to hear
different people speak about what their different goals for the website were. I was
asked to contribute my input as well and to explain what changes I thought were
necessary. The new website took a great deal of planning. Once it actually went
live I had to check every page of the website for errors in spelling, font, and
format, and had to make sure that all of the hyperlinks were working properly.
Most of the proof reading I did was for biographical articles my boss wrote.
I really had to search and re-read her articles several times in order to find any
mistakes. It was a challenging task because she is such a good writer, but I am
glad I was challenged. At first I felt a bit uncomfortable about correcting her work,
especially because it was so good, but I was able to convince myself that she
would not have asked me if she did not want feedback.
Although my supervisors were kind and understanding, I still think talking
to them and reporting to them was a good learning experience. I am usually a
very shy person so having to ask them for instructions and feedback was
sometimes difficult for me to do. Over time, I became more comfortable doing so
and look forward to continuing to develop that skill. I would say that being shy is
definitely one of my weaknesses, but believe that I have been working hard to
overcome it and have made progress.
I was lucky to be in a position where I was given actual assignments
instead of tasks like answering phones and filing papers. I have done a lot of
answering phones and filing in the past so I was happy to get a break from that to
focus on less menial tasks. Working at the law school was a great experience for
me because I hope to go to law school in the future and was able to really
experience the atmospher. I was able to see students in and out of the
classroom, got to listen to the advice of alumna, and even got to meet and speak
with a few professors.
I think that my strength is that I am very willing to help out. I am happy to
do any assignment I am given and will finish it promptly. I enjoy having work to do
and try to be as meticulous as possible. I think the experience would have been
even better if I was given more assignments without having to ask my
supervisors for them.
I am grateful that I was able to spend this semester working on my level of
professionalism. A lot is expected from people who work in professional
environments, which is often something that employees have to adjust to. Getting
to work on time and dressing appropriately are some of the expectations I got to

work on throughout my internship. I always wanted to look presentable and made


sure that I was always dressed appropriately. I looked to my supervisors and
other employees of the law school for examples of how to dress and act
appropriately in the work place.
There are other student interns who work in my office, but never at the
same time I am working. I wish I had worked alongside another intern so that I
would have been able to foster my teamwork skills. I actually prefer to work by
myself, but think it would have been good if I was pushed out of my comfort zone
and forced to work with another intern on projects. My supervisors treated me as
an integral part of the team, so in that sense I was still working in a team. I
listened to their ideas and bits of advice and was able to implement that into my
work.
I also learned about the importance of accountability. I was expected to be
working on different projects at the same time and do all of them well. I had to
exercise my organizational skills in order to keep track of everything I had to work
on and to make sure everything was completed in a timely manner. I enjoyed
being given the opportunity to work on varied projects because it allowed me to
practice different skills. My supervisors expected me to fulfill my commitments
and I believe I did a good job at doing so. My supervisors had high standards for
me, but I also had expectations for myself because I knew I was there to learn
and wanted to prove that I could produce quality work.
I think that actually working is the best way to learn. I have taken a several
classes where I was expected to write and edit my own work in a professional
way, but being accountable and working for someone else was an effective way
to learn. I had to develop strategies in order to get different projects done in a
timely manner. I was never told what order to do my assignments in, which
forced me to determine what was most important to accomplish first. I was
expected to figure out my own system of organization and believe that I did so
well.
There was also some problem solving involved in my internship. I once
accidentally deleted a photo that I was supposed to be editing. I did not want to
let my boss down, so I had to figure out how to recover the file by myself. I finally
figured it out and was thrilled that I was able to solve the issue myself without
help.
I have started to notice that some of the skills I have learned through my
internship have become useful in the classroom. I have been able to use
Photoshop for a few of the projects I have completed this semester. Also, from
learning about all the things one needs to think about while making a website I
have been able to make more functional websites for projects as well. I am sure
that other skills I developed and worked on at my internship will help me with
other endeavors in the future. Working at the law school was a great position for
me because not only did I get to write and edit, but I also got to learn a lot about
how law schools function. Although I was overwhelmed at some times, I still have
my sights set on going to law school. I enjoyed going to work and reporting to my

supervisors. I was fortunate enough to work with really smart and hard working
people and am delighted that I have been asked to come back next semester.

Word Count:
Reflection: 1,791
Written: 5,551+
Edited: 20,000+
Resume: 231
About page: 236

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