Week one

I wrote this last week after my actual first week. I spent a lot of time training but overall it’s been fun.

I’m extra excited to be the public relations assistant for the Texas Wesleyan Marketing and Communications Department. I’m sad that I am not on The Rambler anymore, but I was ready for a change. This week I have basically been learning and training so that the team won’t have to hold my hand all year. I’ve done the Title IX training and the drug and alcohol training that is so super fun. My supervisor Nephtaly Rivera has taught me how to track media mentions as well as how to use t4, txwes.edu’s website platform.

Tuesday, when most of the training was out of the way I wrote a little PR style blurb for the Wesleyan flame. It’s the story about joining The Ram Band if you saw it. (If you didn’t see it click here.) I also wrote about an event TCU is holding in early October. It’s been a little difficult for me to switch from news writing to a more public relations style writing. I think I’ll get better at matching the voice TXWES uses as I go, but for now, I’m struggling.

On, Wednesday I was able to go to Farrington field to help with a last-minute media event. I also helped put together bags to give to the media at the practice. Also, I cut up the inserts for all the passes people wear to get into football games, and I stapled rosters together. All in all, it’s been a good week. Thursday and Friday were slow but at least I can wear jeans on Friday.

I think that this internship is going to help me work towards the goal of being a better writer. I feel like I’m a good writer already but public relations style writing is very different. So, I just want to get the hang of it quickly. I think the only way to do that is to write more public relations pieces.

Week two

My second week went well. Marketing and communications has a google form set up to take story requests. Monday, I checked the form and then started working on a request for a story. The story was about the new nurse anesthesia orientation. It’s really interesting getting to write about all of the different areas at Texas Wesleyan. I feel like I’m learning more about the campus even though I’ve been here three years. Tuesday, I mostly answered the phone and worked on homework. Wednesday, I was pretty busy I wrote up a story about the Star-Telegram winning two Emmys for Titletown, TX: Hail Mary. Thursday, I had to rearrange my schedule because of the “don’t do drugs” athlete meeting. So, I worked on a few writing things and loaded some things into t4. I had to come back after class which wasn’t my favorite. But, it’s fine. Friday was super low-key. I answered the phone twice and that was it. It’s been pretty slow, but I still feel like I’m learning a lot about being on a marketing team and working in an office. Also, I’m getting more comfortable talking to people on the phone and getting them transferred to the right place. It might seem like a small deal but I hate answering the phone. So, it’s a big deal to me.

Week three

I’m still learning the ropes. I’m getting better at answering the phone and tracking media mentions. I feel like I’m getting the hang of matching voice and style. However, it takes me a lot longer to write a story for txwes.edu than it did for The Rambler. I think I’ll get better and faster with practice.

This week was busier than some of the other weeks. I added the finishing touches to the John Paul DeJoria story that went up last week. It has been in The Flame and Ram Life. I also started updating our media contact sheet. That took me almost all week to complete it. After updating the sheet, I narrowed the list down to 80 members of the media to invite them to a media day. The media day is at a football game in October where they can come watch the game for free and tailgate together before. I also wrote several stories that haven’t been posted yet because they’re still waiting on approval.

Overall, this week was some busy (but important) work and a writing week.

Week four

I’ve been keeping busy or trying to. I didn’t have too much going on during week four, but I kept busy.

I’ve posted several stories to t4 and I’m getting quicker at it. I also finalized the email invite list for media day. Then I started making info sheets for each school. The sheets have a list of organizations that students can participate as well as a lengthy list of career possibilities. It took me a long time to get it all done because copy and paste wasn’t really an option. Also, the career possibilities were listed by major and not by school. It was really just some busy work, but it really helped out my boss.

Our google form hasn’t been getting very many responses so writing has been slow. I did get to write up a piece about the Bear Hunt though and that should be going live soon. Also, some of the stories I wrote last week are up now. This was my favorite story I worked on last week. I hope y’all enjoy it.

Week five

My fifth week of work was pretty slow. I think I’m getting better at writing, but I need to slow down and reread everything a few times before I move on. Some of the corrections I’ve gotten were things I knew to do but overlooked.

I posted Dr. Rodriguez’s ICUT award on t4 since I wrote it. I also wrote the bear hunt story that should be posted soon. I’ve also been helping create takeaway fliers for each of the schools. Each sheet has career possibilities, majors, ways to get involved, and a list of places alumni now work and where they went to grad school. I’ve been the researcher for the takeaways, but I don’t think they’ve started the design process yet.
I rewrote a few stories that were still relevant but had outdated information like the T-shirt swap student life does and the story about signing up for emergency alerts.

My favorite thing from week five was Thursday. I got to listen to John Goff speak, and I helped out at the commercial reveal. Passing out T-shirts was fun. It beats sitting in the office for another hour.

All in all, it was a good week. I got to wear jeans three times instead of twice.

Week six

I’m not going to sugar coat it. This week sucked for me. I didn’t have much to do at all. I wrote one post about Dr. Colley and another about Dr. Adkinson. You can read about Dr. Colley’s grant here. I felt better about this story than most because I got basically no corrections. But, looking back, I’m not sure that’s a good thing. I was excited about those two because I’ve had both of them for class, so I knew more about them. Other than that, I didn’t do anything. I emailed some people for Neph, and that was it.

Although, I did get to use some of my extra time to pass my hubspot social media certification.

Week seven

This week was better than last week. I’m still not as busy as I would like, but I’m staying on top of my homework which is nice. This week I didn’t write anything. Two of the stories I updated were in Ram Life, so at least I contributed something. I updated the campus alerts and Wesleyan Wednesday stories.

Overall, I had a better week, but I still wish I was doing more.

Week eight

My story about Dr. A came out during week eight. This story is my favorite so far because I got to write a longer story. I wish I were getting more feedback on stories. Lately, I’ve been comparing my version to the final version to get edits that way. I think it’s more constructive for me to talk through the improvements I need to make.

I also got to help set up the Good Morning Texas shoot. I helped send emails to the organizations that were invited to participate like the Gold Line Dancers, The TXWES Cheer Team, and The Ram Band. I also got to be in the shot a lot as a cheerleader, so that was cool.

Overall, I feel like I learned a lot more about how public relations interact with the media to ensure they get what they need.

Week nine

This week I was busier. I wrote a story about Dr. Kimberly Webb receiving the Exemplary Teacher Award from General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. I also helped with the takeaways again. I started writing a story about Drs Dryden and Anderson that received the Quest for Quality award for their work with primary school students over the summer. The story I wrote on Dr. A didn’t have many edits, and it’s been in The Flame the past two weeks.

Overall, this week has been better. I’m still not as busy as I’d like to be, but I enjoyed this week.

Week ten

This week has been weird. Monday, I didn’t have much to do. I entered a story I had been waiting on approval for into t4. I also returned a call where I had to politely tell someone we didn’t want to place advertising in their high school’s yearbooks. Tuesday, I helped send out RSVP emails for the homecoming media event. Wednesday, I finished sending emails. Neph, Ann and I split the email list between the three of us and kept track of who had responded and when we contacted them in a google spreadsheet. Thursday, I didn’t do much. Friday, I’m meeting with Ann and Neph again to decide what all is still on our checklist for the homecoming media event.

I have to say if nothing else this job is preparing me to interact with people in a professional environment. I was nervous about the phone call I had to make declining advertising, but it went fine. I’m getting more comfortable being uncomfortable, I guess.

Week 11

Week 11 has been crazy busy. I had tons of homework, four cheerleading events/games, the MHL speaker series, and one nap. (First world problems, right?) I wrote four articles for the website that are all waiting for approval to before I can post them. One of the stories that I worked on last week made it into The Flame. It was about Dr. Dryden and her students practicing athletic training in the field. I’m excited that I was assigned to help work on a project about search engine optimization. I’m working under some different people for the SEO project. I’m eager to learn more about SEO because I know I’ll be able to use what I learn in the future.

The media tailgate party is tomorrow! I’m excited to be done working on this event. It hasn’t been too much work, but I love seeing the end of things. (And game day is the best.) Also, this is the first even I’ve helped with, so I hope it goes well.

Week 12

This week was fun. I got to run around campus and do busy work. I also got to write four (sort of five) stories. I’m the most excited about working on the search engine optimization project with Shannon, the associate vice president of Marketing & Communications. She seems like she knows her stuff. I don’t get to work with her very often because she’s busy.

My research for our first SEO subject is due Friday. I finished most of it. Our key term for these articles is “criminal justice school.” We have another meeting to discuss the next steps tomorrow, and then we start the actual writing.

The stories I wrote all came from the google drive link. I like the google drive, but I miss talking to people in person to get quotes.

Overall, I think I’m getting better at writing for public relations and keeping in voice. I am excited about the SEO project because I think that will be helpful to me after I graduate too.