I began my first day of work 24 minutes early. It was snowing outside and I was one of the first people to arrive at Pulmonary Hypertension Association. It was a one-and-one-half hour commute by metro and I was afraid to be late. It was still better to be early than late and it was a telling experience of my co-workers: They are nice, friendly and extremely helpful. PHA, which is in offices on the fourth and fifth floor, has about 30 co-workers. My boss and a few others, whiches includes the PHA president, happen to be on the fifth floor. Since no one was in that office when I arrived, a co-worker on the fourth floor kindly took me under her wing and showed me around, talked to me and basically made me feel welcome. Once everyone was in the office, it was an interesting day. Each department is made up of two to three people who are taking time out of their schedule to introduce themselves to the interns. While everyone has their own projects, it is neat how they all interwine together and the association does have a strong desire to involve their community of people involved in PHA. All my co-workers have a strongly defined character: Compassionate, opinionated and very kind-hearted. My boss and two co-workers took us interns and a new co-worker out to lunch as well. I was slightly worried when I realized that we were talking so much that two-and-a-half hours had passed. We only have one-hour breaks and it was my first day, but then again, I was with my boss. I guess, for the circumstances, it was forgivable since she was right there with me. They seem to be a tight-knit group and it will be interesting getting to know each of them. I was slowly introduced into my new role at PHA as the web publications and content management intern. I have figured out some of my duties, which will include writing, editing and learning some basic IT services work. I have not discovered the exact duties I will be doing but I will learn more tomorrow.
I will also be attending my first night of class tomorrow. I am in Press, Power and Politics. The class will be talking about why people leak information to the media, the role of press conferences, communications strategies and self-promotion. The class should complement my previous studies, which have mainly focused on gathering the news and reporting for feature and news stories. In my college experience, I have attended press conferences and received leaked information, but my classes have never really focused so much on getting it and understanding it as much as the correct style to report on it. The class should help me understand the reality of why press conferences and other class topics are taking place when I cover them for a newspaper. The class will also help me become more knowledgeable within my field, and that is basically my number one goal: To strive to become successful at my chosen career.
Memos for Me 