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Profile
of Brittany Colatrella, Intern, PPW & Writers' Café,
12/04
By Brittany Colatrella
PPW Intern
 Brittany
is an Anthropology major who discovered and enrolled in the Public
& Professional Writing Program in her pursuit to create a college
degree that would prepare her for a successful and gratifying career.
After participating in the one-credit service learning option last
semester, Brittany felt ready to take on more responsibility and
began applying for various internship positions.
As a nature and animal lover, Brittany sought out internships with
various environmental and animal-related organizations. Pam O’Brien
and Jean Grace were extremely helpful throughout this process, searching
for internship sites that they thought would be appealing to Brittany’s
interests. However, the stipulation for 50% writing seemed to be
a hindrance and Brittany did not receive responses from the few
places she had contacted. Luckily, as a student in Writing for the
Public and in the service-learning discussion periods, Brittany
had developed a great relationship with Jean Grace and Pam O’Brien,
and the directors of the PPW program decided to offer Brittany an
internship with them—because they need help, too!
Brittany saw an internship for the Public & Professional Writing
Program as a great opportunity to strengthen her relationships with
PPW faculty and students, and also as a way to get the “faculty
perspective” in contrast to just being a student. Overall,
Brittany’s position as the public relations and marketing
intern for the PPW program was a lot of fun and a rewarding learning
experience.
As part of her internship duties, Brittany had to interact with
a lot of different people in a number of different contexts. Brittany’s
favorite aspect of her job was meeting the many bright and inspiring
individuals affiliated with the PPW program. Through these experiences,
Brittany learned a great deal about catering to other’s needs,
communicating ideas clearly and concisely, and how to treat people
in order to get what you want—these will be useful skills
for Brittany to have now and in her professional future.
Brittany also enjoyed the diversity and flexibility that came with
an internship for an academic program at the University. While Brittany’s
“office” was located in the Writing Center, she mostly
completed her tasks at home, on her own time. She was asked to perform
a bunch of different jobs including writing a press release, designing
promotional flyers, sending out emails, making visits to classes,
attending faculty meetings, and helping to develop the first issue
of the program’s upcoming newsletter. Brittany knows her work
as an intern was helpful in increasing the productivity of the PPW
program, and thinks that her enthusiasm for completing her jobs
to the best of her ability was duly acknowledged and appreciated;
this made the experience all the more satisfying for Brittany.
Reflecting on her upcoming graduation in May, Brittany knows that
her participation in the Public & Professional Writing Program
has been invaluable to helping her gain necessary skills and knowledge
for use in the “real world.” As humanities students,
it can be too easy to lose sight of the fact that what you learn
in the classroom will need to be applied in a professional setting—this
is why internships are the most important credits you can receive
during your undergraduate years.
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