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Profile
of Emily Hench, Intern, LarsonO'Brien Advertising and PR, 12/04
By Brittany Colatrella
PPW Intern
Emily Hench is a senior Communications major who became aware of
the Public & Professional Writing program as a student of Pam
O’Brien; Pam suggested that Emily would enjoy the writing
classes the program offers, and this has certainly been true for
Emily. She has enjoyed being a student in the classes of Pam O'Brien,
Jean Grace, Nancy Koerbel and Beth Marcello; Emily thinks that all
of the professors she has had for her PPW classes have been a tremendous
asset to developing her skills as a writer, and in helping her to
be a successful intern.
Although Emily came to Pitt unsure of what she wanted to do for
a career, her internship experiences have been very helpful in guiding
Emily’s decision about what she will do with her future. Emily
enjoyed having three very different internships, because they gave
her a “taste of the variety of careers out there.” As
she looks forward to graduating in May, Emily now knows that she
wants to pursue a job in the public relations field; she is confident
that the PPW certificate will play an important role in helping
her attain satisfying employment.
Pam O’Brien has been the main contributor to Emily’s
successful internship experiences. Pam helped Emily acquire two
rewarding internship positions: the first, this past spring, at
Venture Outdoors, and also the one she fulfilled this fall at LarsonO’Brien
Advertising and P/R. Pam was also Emily’s faculty supervisor
for both of these internships, and has been a reliable resource
to Emily the entire time.
After having two internships with nonprofit organizations, Emily
was looking to gain experience in a for-profit agency as her final
internship at Pitt. This change was important to Emily so that she
could be involved in a different environment than her previous internships.
Emily also wanted an internship that would expand her network of
connections and give her the opportunity to develop more writing
samples for her professional portfolio. After speaking to some of
the employees at Larson/O'Brien, Emily felt that she would enjoy
working for them; she expected her internship with the firm to teach
her new techniques and tidbits of information that she can apply
in future jobs.
Looking back on her internship at Larson/O’Brien this semester,
Emily is pleased with the work she has done for their firm and with
all of the new tips and tricks she has learned through her experience
there. This internship was different for Emily because she was not
as involved as she had been at past positions, but this was also
a refreshing change of pace. Being less involved gave Emily the
chance to learn a lot by simply observing interesting aspects of
the industry, like creative meetings, for example: “I actually
liked sitting and watching and learning without being pressured
to participate.”
Do not be misled though: Emily has been asked to write a lot. She
has written press releases, project descriptions for clients, articles
about what their clients do/services they offer, and business letters.
Emily has also had to do research and make phone calls to media
outlets and others. Through all of these projects, Emily has certainly
proven to be a helpful asset at Larson/O’Brien. Although some
of her tasks were tedious, like calling to request media kits, she
was always willing to help get things done, even if that just meant
alleviating some of the workload for someone else so they could
devote their time to more important projects.
For Emily, the most enjoyable assignments she completed were the
summaries she wrote about clients and what services they offer:
“For instance, one client is a computer consulting company
and they put out a newsletter talking about different issues like
viruses, firewalls, etc. I had to read those articles and then re-write
them for a more general audience who may not be as educated about
computers.” Writing these summaries tested Emily as a writer
because she had to simplify the information and condense it by choosing
what she felt would be important for the audience to know and understand,
and accomplishing such a challenging project made the reward twice
as gratifying.
Although Emily was not able to develop really “deep”
relationships with everyone, she became fairly close with the two
employees with whom she worked the majority of the time. Plus, the
fact that it was a small office environment where everyone was friendly
and knew each other made Emily feel more than comfortable approaching
anyone with a question. Emily’s internship with Larson/O’Brien
has helped her gain a better understanding of the mechanics of a
for-profit public relations and advertising agency. Emily has had
the opportunity to see each person’s specific role, and how
“it all fits together to become a successful P/R or advertising
campaign.” She has also been able to get a first-hand look
at how ideas are generated and how the company is organized to ensure
that each client is give adequate attention and quality work.
Emily is grateful for all the advice and beneficial events that
the PPW program sponsors and she advises all students to take advantage
of this: “Take as many of the classes as you can and get to
know the professors because you'll be amazed at how much help and
guidance that they are more than happy to give you.” Emily
has enjoyed her experience as a student in the Public & Professional
Writing program particularly because it is a small group of people,
which “makes it very easy to get to know the professors and
your fellow students.”
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