Internship Experience
Summary of Experience:
This semester I was fortunate enough to intern with Save The Bay as their Communications Intern. Save The Bay is a non-profit organization based out of Providence, Rhode Island, whose mission is to protect and improve the Narragansett Bay through advocacy, education and restoration projects. I found myself involved with several different projects and activities throughout the semester, and through all of them I was able to gather a pretty good grasp on the ins and outs on the world of non-profit organizations. My semester long duties consisted of writing press releases on upcoming events or goals that Save The Bay was trying to share with their audiences, crafting several blogs for their “Tides” blog, giving life to some of the rescued animals at the Exploration Center in Newport, and calendaring all of Save The Bay’s yearlong events online through local Chamber of Commerce, newspapers and magazine’s free community calendars. I was also able to assist on monthly video podcasts and even produce, edit, shoot and host a podcast of my own. On top of these everyday duties, there were also other happenings that I was graciously involved with that further enlightened me on what it takes to work in a non-profit organization.
The biggest takeaway I had from my semester with Save The Bay is that if you or anyone wants to work for a non-profit organization, it HAS to be for something you are passionate about, otherwise your work will not mean as much. Non-profits are interesting because everyone works so hard on their individual jobs in order to benefit the greater good, in this case, the Narragansett Bay. The stranger part is, however, that the employees and workers themselves do not necessarily reap these benefits of their hard work. In working with something such as the Bay, it is hard to tell what your work is actually doing, since you are sort of lacking a tangible, to actually visually see how improvement is being made. The employees I worked with all semester, care so much about their work and about protecting and improving the Bay that they feel immediate satisfaction for their work, those are their benefits, whether they can see or know for sure if they are improving the Bay, they know and believe that their work is still making a difference. There was very little interaction and socialization in the Save The Bay office on a day to day basis, but everyone is still held incredibly accountable for their share of the work to keep the organization going. Everyone who works at Save The Bay knows and understands that their work and efforts are contributing to something that is bigger than just themselves as individuals, and without everyone doing their work so diligently, the organization would not run as well or be as successful as it is today.
My initial goal at the start of this semester was to improve my writing skills, learn how to create an appropriate press release, and learn something other than sports, because sports is all I have ever known – ergo, I found Save The Bay. After creating multiple press releases and also my three “Critter Tale” blogs for the “Tides” blog it became evident to me that I work better when writing in a creative, free setting, rather than a structured, straight forward method that press releases call for. While I did struggle at first with creating a press release that got right to the point, I’m proud of the growth I made throughout the semester with this form of writing. My internship advisor, Cindy Sabato, was my main editor for all of my writing, and she did a great job at breaking down my writing to help me improve on my style, grammar and editing skills.
My proudest moment during my internship experience came when I wrote a piece about Save The Bay’s seal tours, which is one of their main sources of income annually, that got picked up and published in Rhode Island Parent Magazine’s December Issue. Going into Stop & Shop to pick up a magazine that had my name in it with a story I wrote was a feeling like nothing I have ever felt before. I picked up so many copies off the rack that I’m not sure I left any for others to pick up and read on their own. Nevertheless, this publication and experience has driven me more than ever before to find a way to create content that I produce on my own and can get published to share with others.
This internship has taught me so much about myself and the goals I want to achieve in my career and also what direction I want to take in my career. I am beyond thankful for the opportunity to have worked with Save The Bay this semester.
