Internship
During the summer of 2022, I had the privilege of interning for the Farmville Area Chamber of Commerce alongside Executive Director Anne Tyler Paulek, Executive Coordinator Molly Kinahan, and my fellow intern Tyler Marshall. My job duties were extensive but interesting:
- Answering the phone
- Checking voicemail and getting back in touch with callers
- Checking for and receiving mail
- Building desks
- Packing welcome bags and folders
- Editing copy for posts, newsletters, meeting minutes, etc…
- Creating social media posts
- Tweaking social media profiles when needed
- Establishing an “auto reply” system with the FACC’s Instagram and Facebook pages
- Researching grants for local companies
- Taking photos of street signs, events, and businesses
- Receiving and redeeming gift cards
- Assisting with local events
- Creating social media post calendars
- Scheduling and drafting designs
- Interacting and forming relationships with local teachers, businesses, and leaders
With all of this in mind, I aimed to take away as much experience as I possibly could within 150 hours of work… and I no doubt succeeded.
Above is an example of what my normal work looked like. It all revolved around filling up month-long lists with content to post. On a standard day working at the chamber, I would filtering through magazines, newsletters, and lists of businesses located in Farmville. After finding unique tidbits of information, I would do things like draft/scheduled posts that revealed interesting things about the town, discuss special offerings from local businesses, and showcase developments within the area–such as new parking lot signs. Throughout the number of months working at the chamber, my intern partner and I fully filled up 3 to 4 of these lists, helping provide social media content to the chamber for around 90+ days.
Here is a second example of a social media calendar I helped with.
Another job duty–that I performed only a few times, but proved important–was editing. I cleaned up newsletters, social media posts, and as seen below, meeting minutes. They weren’t just from any old meeting though, I had the opportunity to edit the notes from the Farmville Downtown Partnership board meetings. How cool is that! I listened to the hour and a half recordings and made sure the notes were properly keeping record of what was discussed.
Below is an example of meeting notes I’ve edited. I blacked out the vast majority of names and important details, because much of that information is not meant to be public… Yet. Doing this was incredibly interesting and insightful, plus it made me feel super special as I got a sneak-peek at the road ahead for Farmville.
I also had the chance to edit the Farmville Area Chamber of Commerce’s newsletter. Molly and Anne Tyler are wonderful writers, but even they made mistakes at times, so the extra set of eyes allowed me to improve their writing even further. I helped improve flow, alongside catching spelling and grammar errors. They were incredibly grateful for my work. Typos are seen as unprofessional, but I was able to help maintain their image by cleaning up any problems I found (example below).
The final set of work examples I wish to provide in this portfolio are screenshots of my social media posts. I was allowed to take a bit of creative license when promoting members of the chamber, so that was fun and intriguing. Looking through a list of hundreds of companies, I picked one out, did my research on them and finalized my findings with a small “blurb” about them on the FACC Facebook/Instagram pages.
All in all, my internship for the Farmville Area Chamber of Commerce was a blessing. Grateful is an understatement–I am incredibly happy to have enjoyed this opportunity under the wing of both Molly and Anne Tyler. Their leadership was excellent, and I learned a ton. I was able to network among, and even get on a first-name-basis with many business leaders within the community. I am excited to have experienced what the chamber had to offer me, and look forward to promoting this opportunity to my friends in the future. My 150 hours were a success!
Published Editor
During my time at college, I also edited a book that is now published and making sales. Thus, I too, am a published editor. The name “SammieB” is an old moniker I used to use, but don’t exactly like it much anymore. Either way, it is incredibly cool to see my growth, as I am now an official editor.
