Emily E. Roberts ENC 4942Spring 2015

Internship ReflectionWorking 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 school’s website.

One of my daily jobs was updating the law school’s 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 school’s 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+

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Resume: 231

About page: 236