Full Circle Freshman
When you begin your college journey, you’re a freshman for the second time in your life. When you work as an intern, it’s as though you’re a freshman for the third time in your life, but better. I began my internship with the design department of Temple’s Strategic Marketing and Communications department in the middle of May. Although I haven’t been here very long, it has already been an eye opening experience for me. There are still so many things to learn in terms of programs, design tools, proofing, and even things like marketing/advertising slang that wouldn’t be possible to learn without hands-on experience.
Being new in any situation is always intimidating, but even more so when you’re entering a work environment with people who have decades of experience on you. However, the department staff, especially the design team, has been immensely helpful already. I don’t even think that they realize how helpful even the smallest tips (or what seem like small tips) are, in terms of learning the ropes. Having seen all of the great Take Charge work that comes out of this department around campus and throughout the city, it is a great pleasure to be able to watch over the shoulders of the people who produce it. It’s also hard not to feel a sense of pride and/or accomplishment when you’re asked for input on projects when they need a student’s perspective.
Having never completed an internship prior to this one, I can’t help but have a vast appreciation for things as simple as having an understanding of how different layouts convey different tones, or by learning how to use a certain tool in InDesign that I didn’t know how to use before. Upon graduating college and entering the workforce, you have to know that you’re going to be working you’re way up to where you want to be, you won’t just be placed at the top. You have to take the small victories and look at them as though they’re big ones because you find out that in life, appreciation and graciousness go an extremely long way. A lot of people find it hard to come across a career or job that truly excites them, but I can already tell that I’ll find myself right at home in an agency setting like this one.
