The UNCP Mass Communication Department, requires students to complete at least one internship. I decided that one internship wasn't enough to gain experience. I completed one internship with SouthEastern Health in Lumberton, North Carolina and completed a second internship with UNCP's Communications and Marketing Department. Both internships provided me with great hands on experience. 

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SouthEastern Health: 

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I began my internship with SouthEastern Health in the summer of 2017. The internship was based out of SouthEastern's Health Education Center located inside of Biggs Park Mall.

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Each week, the Health Education Center had health seminars for the community. The type of seminar that would be offered would vary each week. One week the health seminar may be for diabetes, and the following week's health seminar would be about dementia. 

 

As a Community Health Services Intern, my responsibilities consisted of planning and promoting the seminars. In order to promote these events, I tried to think of creative ways to capture the mall shopper's attention as they walked by our display area.

To accomplish this, I created newsletters, banners and tri-folds to promote the events. 

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At the end of each seminar, those that were in attendance were given a five question survey about their experience. I wanted to know what they learned? How many seminars a month did they attend? And if there was anything that we could have done better? 

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One thing that I enjoyed about this internship is that I had the opportunity to help people when they needed it the most. People would visit the education center regularly to check their weight, blood pressure, and learn more information on their health problems. Usually people would come in looking for more information on things such as diabetes or COPD. This was the perfect way to get to know people with different lifestyles. While I was looking for flyers, pamphlets or CD's to give to them, some people would begin to talk with me about their lives and when they were diagnosed with their health issues. 

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I learned a lot through this internship. The biggest thing that I learned is research is key when planning events. In order for our displays to have the greatest impact on people, I had to think about the demographics of citizens that used our facility on a regular basis, which was usually people 40 years of age or older.

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The University of North Carolina at Pembroke: 

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My second internship was with the University's communications and marketing department. 

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I started the internship in the beginning of September of 2017. My duties as a marketing Intern was to check the University's master calendar for events that we could promote by publishing a press release. My other duties included updating and managing the University's media list and website. 

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As a student, my input was always wanted on advertisements and commercials before they were published. 

Everyone in the department wanted to make sure the advertisements would appeal to current and future college students. Since I fell into that category, I was able to tell them what exactly their advertisements may have been lacking. 

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The one thing that I enjoyed the most about this internship was interviewing different people around campus for news releases.

I interviewed professors, faculty, staff and students with different backgrounds. I always found it interesting how they ended up at our campus in rural North Carolina? 

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My favorite interview was with Dr. Emilia Bak about being a participant in UNCP's Minute Mentoring Program. Dr. Bak was known for giving great advice to students. Being a participant in the Minute Mentoring Program was her way to reach out and guide students through the ever-changing college experience.

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The news release was featured on the University's website and in The Robesonian. 

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