The Adventures of a Big City Intern

Well I finally made it! After getting through months of anticipation, and a delayed flight, I have finally made it to Hoboken, NJ to start my internship at EducationDynamics, a website host company. While here, I’m working with their Program Marketing Department as one of four summer interns, all of whom are spread out between the various departments.

I had my first day of work yesterday, and as nervous as I was, I ended up having an amazing experience…which isn’t so hard to do when you can see the New York City skyline from your desk. Within the first few hours I made my acquaintance with my mentors, Rosa and Cristin, and met with the director of my department to discuss the different kinds of projects I will be working on this summer. Rosa is super laid-back, and is one of the newest employees to the company, having served as the PM intern last summer. Cristin has been here for about a year and a half, and not only works full time in the office but does freelance illustration on the side.

After getting acquainted with my new team, we were treated to lunch by one of the VP’s and then attended our very first full office meeting where we came up with a theoretical design for a chat application for the websites they use here, one of which is geared towards incoming freshman (which is the one LTU uses), and the other called FYRe, which is geared towards first year students with the goal of keeping them at the university. I immediately assumed that as an intern, and not to mention, the only person under-20 in the entire office, that I wouldn’t be addressed much, if at all, and that if I were to speak up, anything I were to say would be ignored.

WRONG.

All four of us quickly discovered that we were just as responsible for brainstorming and participating as any full-time employee in the company. We all began to speak up, throwing out ideas and giving input that the VP running the meeting seemed genuinely interested in hearing, and quickly added them to the developing list for the chat application. Towards the end of the meeting we switched into smaller groups and based on the collective group input, designed a chat box for the application, and when everyone was finished it was time to present. When it got to our group, I was the one who ended up presenting the project which was both scary and exciting at the same time.

Once that meeting was finished, the other interns and I met with the Vice President of design to discuss a new project his team was working on: developing a mentor/protégé website for another university. Again, we discussed the features we wanted to see, and came up with designs for what we felt the page should look like, as well as how the selection process would be implemented, etc.

Overall, my first day was a whirlwind, but I could not ask for better. After work we headed back to our apartment, and did some grocery shopping and just hung out for the night.

Oh, yeah, roommates, almost forgot. I’m living in an apartment in the city of Hoboken with the 2 other female interns, April and Erin, and Jill, a student who attends the university that our apartment complex is owned by. April is a talkative sweetheart who goes to school in Georgia where she is a Public Relations major. Erin just finished up her undergrad work at NJIT where she majored in Business. She’s super sweet too and logical, and knows her way around the city well enough to not get us lost. Jill just finished up her undergrad work at Stevens University and she’s been a tremendous help as far as giving us tips as to the best and cheapest restaurants, shops, etc. in and around NYC.

So far the experience has been amazing, and tonight we’re planning on going to a charity run in CENTRAL PARK [!!!!] and then going out with everyone from the company to hang out and get to know them on a more personal level.

More to come!!

Krysta