And that’s that!
Wow. I cannot believe that my summer at Chicago Children’s Theatre is over! It went by so, so fast – that means I had a good time, right? Now that it’s over, I can fully reflect on how I grew as a young professional and see how I can apply these skills into my career. Overall, I think the biggest thing I will be able to take away from this is how a non-profit runs. Through this internship, I’ve discovered that this is the field I want to end up in for my career. Whether it is media related or not, I’m still not sure, but I have time to figure that out! In general, I’m passionate about the purpose of a not-for-profit organization: the goal of it is not to make the most money possible; rather, it’s to provide the community with something enriching, and in this case, fun activities children would not have otherwise. I still have a couple of ultimate career aspirations in mind, all which will pull heavily from the basis of knowledge I cultivated this summer. I learned important things like running multiple social media platforms, creating relationships with clients, connecting to vendors and events in the community, and more. Wherever I end up, I know these skills will help me immensely! Goals-wise, I think I achieved what I set out to do: see if this is what I want to do with my future. While I still don’t have an exact, concrete direction, I have more of an idea of where I’m supposed to be in two years!
My one piece of advice for next year’s interns is don’t be afraid to voice your own opinion and make contributions to your supervisors and bosses. At first, I was way too nervous to offer up another idea because I thought my boss would renounce it immediately. But, as I got more and more comfortable with the workplace, I started to offer more of my ideas, and to my surprise, some of them took off! Soon, I was able to post on social media without any guidance or pre-approval because I was trusted. I was able to take on more tasks, like overseeing marketing collateral design and sending it to printers for quotes, than I was originally given because I proved to my supervisors that I could handle more. Internships are all about learning; upper management teams know that and are readily available for advice. So, I guess another piece of advice I have for you is to take advantage of your co-workers and supervisors and learn from them about their experiences in this field – see if this is actually something you’d want to do!
Lastly, I just want to thank the Foundation and the rest of the team who generously awarded me with this grant; without it, I wouldn’t have been able to have this amazing experience that will impact my career and the rest of my life!
