WAVEs of Excitement

As I am writing this, my very first “official” internship will start this Monday (8/26/19) at the Newport Aquarium with the WAVE Foundation. I will be interning as a PR Video Production Intern and will be working with an amazing award-winning PR mentor, Jen Tan. I just went through orientation Friday and I could instantly tell I was going to love it. Actually, I wish it would have lasted longer (when was the last time you ever wished an orientation lasted longer?). I am so excited for an extraordinary opportunity for a list of reasons:

1. It gives me an internship opportunity to do what I love with making videos with Adobe Premiere and my equipment (essentially my minor in college) in a workplace environment and learn the PR side of things as well (my major).
2. It places me in an environment where I can have fun and still learn from hands-on experience, guided by a world-class mentor.
3. Newport Aquarium is also owned by Herschend Family Entertainment, a company that owns many well-known entertainment properties such as Dollywood and Silver Dollar City. Being a part of the entertainment industry is one of my biggest dreams in life to utilize my skills in one day, such as an amusement/theme park.
4. I get to work with animals!!!

I’ve already had to empty my brain countless times of ideas and strategies I want to bring to the aquarium, so I am very excited to share them and hopefully bring them to life. A few things I hope to do/learn in this internship are:

1. To utilize digital media sites/platforms in order to promote the aquarium and help them build up their “fan base”.
2. Get hands-on experience when dealing with PR situations such as customer unsatisfaction or unfortunate situations (The Newport Aquarium does an amazing job at this, so I am especially excited to learn in this area).
3. Learn what it takes to upkeep and run social media platforms for a company (I have experience with running some for non-profit organizations, but none with an actual company in an industry).
4. So, so much more.

Here’s to an awesome fall semester!