Friday Feb. 20: Dean’s List and President’s List

So, starting Friday, the 20th, I have embarked on the journey that is the Dean’s List and President’s List.  It is certainly a lengthy process, yet, I actually don’t mind it!  It’s time consuming and a bit tedious (ok very tedious), but it doesn’t require much thought (which is sometimes a nice change of pace). 

What I must catalogue for the nearly 500 or so names is:

• Look up student name, year, major, county and town
• Look up the counties by zip code using the US Census website
• Write the press realeases for each county’s list of students who have earned Dean’s List/President’s List
• Look up county newspapers and contact them with the list of students in their area who have earned Dean’s List/President’s List

This process involves both Microsoft Excell and Microsoft Word.  This assignment is projected to last over 2 weeks.  I’ll give an update on my progress on Monday!

Monday Feb. 16: Pizza and Press Releases

On Monday, Feb 16th I walked into my internship and was delightfully surprised: upon one of employees’ return from a service trip, pizza was served!  So we had the staff meeting in which everyone discussed the project list and then we ate pizza. 

Following the pizza I worked on press releases.  One was for the worthy nominee that I have mentioned in previous posts.  Another was for an ex-death row convict who was wrongfully accused over 15 years ago and was just released from Oklahoma State prison.   The man is coming to speak to students at the College and there will be a public event held for him later in the evening.  I had to contact a few sources about this event as well as put together internal and external press releases for it.  The third press release was for an artist who’s photos will be displayed in an exhibition at the College.  I had to find information about him and the reception opening his exhibit.  The final release I worked on was for upcoming Fine Arts events at the College.

Monday was fun!

Friday the 13 (of Feb.): In the News

On Friday I devoted nearly the entire day to working a compilation of the College’s news releases for the month of January.  This included newspapers, online releases and specialty magazines.  This process took a great amount of time and consisted of listing all the newspapers, online articles and specialty magazines that the College appeared in over the month of January.  Nothing much else for Friday.

Monday Feb. 9: Spring Fine Arts

Monday was an interesting day.  First we had the staff meeting.  One of the major players in the office had gone on a service trip to Guatemala and was absent from the meeting.  Here I listened to everyone’s project lists-everyone seems very busy!  Even as far as graduation ceremony arrangements were being discussed and it is still a few months away.  I announced that I was working on the press releases for the Spring ’09 Fine Arts Performances coming up.  

After the meeting I started my work.  Most of my time was spent not only writing these press releases but also e-mailing various sources in order to find out information about the artists: what kind of art they produce (photography, paintings etc), what pieces they would be performing (Mozart, Bach, Handel etc), and even where they were from.  I also was not sure what some events were all about.  Getting all the information proved difficult after several forwarded e-mails to people that may or may not have known the information I needed.  Ultimately, I had to wait to hear back from a few people before I could put the finishing touches on the releases.  

Monday I also worked a bit more on my release for the “worthy nominee.”  I also scanned some newspaper articles onto the computer.

Feb. 6: Complaints and Press Releases

On Friday, Feb. 6th I came into my internship not knowing what to expect. What I discovered was quite a surprise: I was asked to record dozens of grievances received through our department. The grievances were in response to a recent award given to a notable woman. I learned how to deal with complaints from the public graciously, and how to devise a plan to respond to these individuals. My supervisor and I decided the best method would be through e-mail because there would be no face to face contact and there would be no interuptions. We have not sent the e-mails out yet however.
I then worked on some press releases for the website. These were summaries of the upcoming events taking place on campus. I feel I’m becoming more efficient at writing these. I even enjoy writing them!
That’s about it for Friday.

Ladies of Liberty and a Worthy Nominee

Hi my name is Kandace Keefer and this is my first blog for my internship.  I am really enjoying working with my supervisor Dan and the other ladies (and one other man) that work in the office.  I just started a few weeks ago at the beginning of the Spring ’09 semester, but already I feel comfortable and confident.  My main duty is to take assignments from Dan and complete them to the best of my ability.  My main focus is press releases for events taking place at the College.

On Monday (Feb. 2) I focused on two main projects: finding a reflection piece for a student to read during Cokie Roberts’ visit on Thursday (Feb. 5) and writing a press release for a man who works at the college who was nominated for a service achievement award.  Finding the reflection piece was very difficult.  Unfortunately, many of the “Ladies of Liberty” which Roberts lists in her book do no have many positive quotes on the internet.  We couldn’t ask the student to read something like: “Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could” by Abigail Adams.  So the search was on.  Finally I decided to not use a first lady mentioned in Roberts’ book and instead to look up quotes by our current first lady, Michelle Obama.  It turned out that Michelle had many more quotes to choose from, most of them positive and engaging.  I even found one that reflected the message of the college–mission accomplished

For the remainder of my time I worked on a press release for a man at the college who was nominated for a civil engagement award.  This too proved to be difficult since the winner had already been announced and this man was just a candidate.  So I gathered my information and tried to construct it into a cohesive story.  I’m learning to be more concise and brief with my writing, and I can already see improvements.  I write my first draft, and as always my supervisor rips it apart, then I fix my mistakes, and he rips it apart again.  This continues until we can both agree on a final draft.  

Finally I closed the day with compiling a detail sheet for my supervisor.  This is a “who, what when” type of layout which is done in order to more easily write a press release off of.  I’m getting really good at these!

That’s all for Monday, I’ll report back on Friday!