I am the PR Chair for Bloomsburg's PRSSA Chapter and my job is to communicate with the Rotary Club and assist them with their events. Last semester, I went to a Rotary Club meeting with Dr. Magolis to share with them what PRSSA is and how we could help them. I was nervous but excited. I wanted to make a good impression on these professionals! After the meeting, Allan Schappert, the Danville School District school board president, approached me with an offer to be the PR/Marketing intern for the school district. He explained to me that this school was dying for some help to promote their school (which is one of the best in the country). He told me that people do not know how great of an education their children will be receiving while attending this school. He told me I would be working directly with the Superintendent and to get in contact with her. At first, I was a little unsure of this internship and what I would be doing but I got in contact with Mrs. Latorre to learn more about the position. I met with her and Dawn Brookhart, Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Technology for the school district. They seemed great and SUPER excited to have me on board! They told me they have a bunch of projects I can work on and were so excited to have a fresh perspective on things. They offered me the internship and I said I could start as soon as possible when I returned in the Spring. Luckily for me I do not have class on Tuesday or Thursday so that is when I attend my internship. My first official day was February 10th. I start at 8:30 am and it depends on the day when I end.
The first project I worked on for Mrs. Latorre, was a wellness newsletter. She gave me all of the information she wanted to be in it, and I created a newsletter that was specific to their district (colors and such). It took me about a week and a half to perfect and another week for proofreading. It is now complete and beautiful!
During the next few days, Mrs. Latorre had me create some different little things that she would be handing out to the teachers and staff in all the districts. For Valentine's day, they were having a snack stand with hot chocolate and such for all the staff. She had me create a Valentine's themed pamphlet to hand out to the staff alerting them of the fun snacks.
I also created a small pamphlet for all the staff reminding them of the high school drama club performance and to remember to vote so the author Jan Brett could visit the Primary School.
On one of the other days, she had me create some bullying posters that could be hung up around the high school.
Last Thursday, February 26th, Mrs. Latorre was out of the office so I headed to the primary school to work with Mrs. Brookhart. She gave me a tour of the school which holds grades K-2. The school was huge! Mrs. Brookhart really wants literature circles to be used more by the teachers. She trusted me to write a small newsletter for the teachers to help them understand what they are and create positions for the kids as well as bookmarks containing the information they need to know for their jobs in the circle.
Today March 3rd, I proofread a volunteer handbook, created a cover for a binder they have around the office, created a paper to hand out to school board members, and researched the career development centers of some of the colleges around the area. I did the research because Mrs. Latorre is looking for substitute teachers and wants to be able to post the job offerings on college sites for freshly graduated seniors who want to work for Danville School Districts
All in all, this internship has been amazing so far. I am excited to keep expanding my portfolio and help make the Danville School District the best it can be!
Second Post, March 19, 2015:
Since the last time I posted on my blog, I have not been to my internship. March 5th I did not attend because of the weather. The next week was spring break. This week I have not attended because the Superintendent has been out with a family emergency. I hope everything is okay with her family and I can continue to work next week.
Third Post, March 26, 2015:
On Tuesday March 24th, I had a busy day at my internship. Mrs. Latorre had me create a bunch of things for her. The first thing I did was proofread the wellness newsletter one last time so she can send it out to the staff. There was not much to fix, but there were a couple errors. It did not take too long but I am relieved it is hopefully finally done!
A teacher from the school district is retiring and Mrs. Latorre wrote up an invitation that she wants to give to this teacher to invite him to come to his ceremony to celebrate his dedication to the school district. She asked me to make an invitation for him and to include pictures of the four sports he was involved in during his time at the school.
Mrs. Latorre asked me to create a small Easter thank you that she can send out to the staff to wish them a happy Easter and thank them for all their hard work. I created a colorful, little half page that she can give her staff.
The next thing on the list was to create a silly paper that said "If you lost your marbles, please take one!". She hopes to put this next to a bag of marbles to produce some comic relief around the always busy and stressful office. I found a cute clip art picture online of a man who seems to have marbles coming out of his head.
Mrs. Latorre then asked me to write congratulations letter to three students who placed top honors in the Pennsylvania High School Speech League championship tournament. The letters were to be from her and she would include a picture of the three of them with the letter. She also had me create a generic "Congratulations" letter that she can send out to students as well.
The last thing she had me do was organize her personal binder that contains a bunch of different things. She had me create sections that included all the things inside of it. She has a lot of achievement awards, student achievements, and personal thank you/congratulation notes from students and other people. I was more than happy to help make her day a little less hectic and organize her things.
On Thursday, March 26th, Mrs. Latorre introduced me to a new project she has for me. I am going to help her combine all of the staff handbooks (substitute, employee, volunteer, etc.) into one bit handbook that they can give out to employees. As of now, they have a separate one for each but her plan is create one that has tabs to each different position. I created a cover for the new handbooks. I also looked them all over to see what I can incorporate in the part of the handbook that is the same for every job. Next Thursday, I will be working with Mrs. Brookhart in the primary school to get officially started.
I also looked up poems on the internet to make into a cute card to give to the secretaries around the school district. Secretary day is coming up and Mrs. Latorre is giving each one a little something and including the card.
Lastly, I made two signs for an event coming up telling people who are attending where to park and that there are no food or drink allowed in the gymnasium.
All in all, I had a long, eventful week at my internship. I continue to learn and grow while there as well as enjoying the company of all the ladies I work with!
Fourth Post, March 31, 2015:
In the Danville School District (just like in most schools) they have handbooks explaining the regulations of each position here. When you get hired, they give you the handbook to read over to make sure you are up to date with all their rules and such. Mrs. Latorre and Mrs. Brookhart have decided that they want to combine all four of the handbooks together to make it easier for the employee as well as the employer. They have appointed me to have the task of arranging the books into one. The four handbooks are substitute, volunteer, paraprofessional, and employee. The first part of the handbook will be a generalized section that can be used by everyone who gets hired here. The next sections will be tabbed for each specific type of employee. Both days, March 31 and April 2, I worked the entire time on combining these handbooks. It is a large task that may take a while to complete.
Final Post, May 5, 2015
Last week I my finished my semester at the Danville School District. I dedicated 120 hours of my time to this internship. This internship was a great experience for me. I could not be more thankful for my time here. I learned so much about my profession as well as a working community. Cheryl Latorre and Dawn Brookhart were so helpful with the learning process and were constantly there to help. I appreciate their help more than they will ever know! I was lucky enough to have two internships during my time at Bloomsburg and they were nothing but a positive experience for me. This was a great way to end a great fours years at the best college, Bloomsburg University!
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