Carnegie Library of PIttsburgh, 4/09
by Daniel Stiker

Dana interned this semester at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, her third internship while a Communications and Rhetoric major at the University of Pittsburgh. Dana pursued the PPW certificate because she thought it would be a good addition to her major.  In addition, Dan feels that writing is very important in the professional world so the program lets her gain some professional writing experience.

In her internship at the library, Dana gained valuable experience including working on major projects like the annual report and writing a speech for the Director of the library. Dana feels that working on the annual report will add a lot to her portfolio.  Although sHe thinks that if she lead the planning meeting, the process would have been much faster because of her organizational skills.

The library staff made Dana feel welcome right away, even though she is one of the younger people in the office.  Dana loves the fact that she was able to work by herself with minimal supervision as well as working with other staffers.

But Dana’s work load fills most of her 15 hours per week at the library.  Between writing copy for the 19 branch and main libraries and handling media requests, Dana still finds time to work on her 5 classes she is taking in her senior year at Pitt.

Dana learned that writing plays a part everyday in the workplace and working in a supportive atmosphere is very important.  Her advice to future interns is simple: to work as hard as you can and seize every opportunity to attend staff meetings.