The Interns Podcast Season 1 Episode 1

Alexandra Cosmore introduces a new podcast called "The Interns" where she interviews interns from different majors every week. The first episode features interns from Eagle Media, a student-run media group at FGCU. The interns discuss their application process and requirements for their internships. They also talk about the internship course they are taking and the assignments they have to complete, such as writing reports and updating resumes. Overall, they have had a positive experience with their internships. Hello, everyone. My name is Alexandra Cosmore, and I'm an EGLE here at FGCU, and I'm introducing our brand new podcast. So, our podcast is called The Interns, and I'm going to be interviewing interns in different majors here every week. So, I, let's introduce myself. My name is Alexandra, as you know. I am from Medford, New Jersey, so I'm not from Florida. I am a marketing major, and I have been in the LCOB since my second semester of my freshman year. I don't have any specializations, however, I do want to focus on sales. So, for our podcast, we're going to have weekly guests from each major, so we're going to try to get business majors, nursing majors, political science majors, you name it, that are doing internships either here with FGCU or off campus, and ask them just about what their internship experience is like, their background, so like where they're from, if they've lived in Florida, if they're from elsewhere, what their major is, how their classes have been, if they live on campus, off campus, the whole nine yards. So, this week, we are talking about Eagle Media. So, Eagle Media is our student-run media group here at FGCU. That involves our television, radio, and news branches. We have news editors that are constantly working on pieces. We have individuals taking photos. There are students filming for our sports and for our television reels. All different types of activities at Eagle Media. So, I want to introduce my members, my guests here from Eagle Media. So, if everyone could say hi and then introduce yourselves. Hi, I'm George. I'm a communications major. I've been a senior at this point, so I'm about done. But yeah, I'm currently interning with Eagle Media as well. Hey guys, my name is Erica Ramos. I'm also a senior majoring in communications and psychology. I'm also an Eagle Media intern, and I'm here to tell you a little bit more about my experience. Hi, my name is Robert Giroux, and I am a senior as well. I'm studying communication with public relations, and I am with Eagle Media as well, and it has been nothing but smooth sailing. Great, guys. So, I have a couple questions for you, if you don't mind me asking. So, if you could talk about the basics of what your internship is, what your experience has been like so far for your major. So, this involves the start to finish, if you finished your major. So, how did you guys apply? Well, for me, I applied through the school's career network. Went through that, found the Eagle Media page, applied to that through there with my resume and everything. About a week or so later, they messaged me back, I messaged them back. After a while, I ended up becoming a board, essentially. So, here I am, quick and easy. Do you remember exactly who you talked to? It was the original person that was in charge of the internship program at the time, but that's changed a lot. I don't remember his name off the top of my head, it's an issue. Give me a second, we'll probably find it. But, yeah, it went from him to another person, and now we're currently with Blake, so thank you very much. Dr. Berligli? Yes. So, for me, it was basically the same. I also found this internship through the Eagle career network. So, I would really recommend that website for any students that are looking for a specific internship or job. So, for a communications major, you're required to have an internship for graduation. So, I went straight to Eagle Media network, to Eagle career network, and I started looking at the options. I saw Eagle Media, and then I applied, sent my resume, all the information. And, like, two, three days after, Justin, which was the person in charge, he sent me an email asking if I could go for an interview. I went straight there. He asked a couple questions, my interest, to see where I would fit the most in Eagle Media, as we have, like, three different branches. And then, after that, it was just, like, waiting for the semester to start. So, the first day that we started the internship was August 14. And, yeah, that's how I applied and got into this internship. I found out about this internship through a very good friend of mine, that she was meeting with a gentleman named Justin to get it started, and I tagged along, and I did not know where it would take me. But, everything seems to be very well so far, and it's pretty, pretty easy process to get in touch with people and have them reply back. And, it has been nothing but smooth sailing. So, no complaints here. So, I know you guys all said that you're communication majors, but does your major have specific requirements for your internship? Yes. So, as a communication major, my concentration is public relations. We have specific requirements that we have to do in the internship in order to graduate. The first requirement is to send all of this required paperwork, which is, like, a mutual agreement between you and your supervisor from the internship. In the agreement, there is, like, some stipulation. For example, the hours that you need to complete in order to meet that requirement. For example, for graduation purposes, you need three credits, which each credit equals to 45 hours, I believe. So, the total will be 135 for the three credit hours. So, once you get the 135, then you're good, and you've met the requirement for graduation. And, that's all the same for you guys? Yeah, pretty much exactly the same. Like, other than, like, as brought up earlier with when it got switched around with a different person, you need to sort of fill out that same paperwork again, and give them, or the new person is, have them sign off as well, and then you just turn it back in. That's all set and done. Awesome! For my internship, surprise, I'm also part of Eagle Media. I'm a marketing major, so I have to have 150 hours. And then, that segues into my next question, which is, are you guys taking the internship course that goes along with the internship, and what are the requirements for that? Is it different? Is it the same as mine, because I'm also taking it? Yeah, with communication specifically, it is a required course, right? So, we have to take it. It's about, it's not the same as you, because you only have to do, you have to do more than us for the internship. You only have to do, as stated earlier, about three credit hours, which is about 135, right? So, it's not, like, in the same way we have to do it for our, for the purposes of graduation, right, for completing our degree. I don't know about you, if it's a requirement, or you just simply took this for, for the credits, as well as the experience. That's a good question. I believe I am required to have an internship. However, I did specifically want an internship once I learned that you could take a course in form of, like, credit. So, for my course, it's three credit hours, but it takes the place of another required course that I needed for my major, you know, social media marketing. So, instead of taking a course, I can substitute it with internship experience, which is going to look better on my resume for when I start applying for jobs. Okay. So, like, not sure if required. However, I knew I wanted it, so it didn't matter if it was required or not. Yeah. Yeah, same. Like, we're all, the three of us are communication majors, so, yeah. In order to be able to have the internship and make it count as the required hours, you need to take the course at the same time, and it needs to be exactly at the same time, on the same semester. It's not like you can take, it's not like you can do the internship, let's say, on the fall, and then take the first on the spring. No, it needs to be at, like, the same, in the same semester, at the same time, and that's the only way it counts as a requirement to graduate. Right, yes, and before you enroll in the internship course, you have to sign this internship form with your supplier, or whatnot, employer, I should say, and that could take a couple weeks. So, bear in mind that you can't really put it to the last minute, or else you might not get it at all. So, that's an important point to bring up, and 135 hours, you know, that's a requirement to graduate, and, you know, it's been great so far. Awesome. So, your course structure. For me, I only have to write two reports. One is a minor report halfway through, and then a final report of the entire synopsis of the internship experience. I know that Erica said that you also have to interview. So, what's that interview going to be like? So, we have to interview, like, our supervisor, and then about specific topics. For example, the first interview that I had to do to Dr. Blakely was about professionalism, and then his input in professionalism. So, I had to ask him, like, six questions, like, define professionalism, how has professionalism helped you to succeed in your career, and, like, a couple more questions. But for the course, like, the communication internship course, we do have other stuff aside from just writing the reports. We have to do our resumes, like, update it, and make it a fit as specifically, like, format that we had to go to services here in school, and they could give us, like, the communications format, and then we had to change or, like, upgrade the resume in order for it to be approved. So, we have a professionalism project, which has part one and part two. So, the part one is, like, you have to go and interview them and ask them the questions, and then they have to do an evaluation of your professionalism while you ask them the questions. So, it's, like, two parts. Then we had to do a reflection journal, which we had to talk about everything we learned, the experience, you know, all the information, all the important information, basically. We also had to do, for the people that don't have it, or if you do have it, like, upgrade it or make it better, it's, like, LinkedIn profile, which employees are going to want to see, maybe, from you. You can put all the information there. We're also going to have a presentation that we had to provide pictures and our inputs, as well as a video of us, you know, speaking about the internship. Aside from that, we also have a survey that we had to do about our our internship, the supervisor, everything. And then they have a survey about us and how we did on the internship. And then, at the end, they just have to send the log hours and see if we got it. Yeah, that's pretty much it. I mean, honestly, I remember taking pictures during the interview process that I keep forgetting to do, funnily enough. They require that for our, for the course itself, you have to take those pictures for that last presentation. Well, if you want to take a picture now, we can smile for you. But, in the meantime, so, as I mentioned, Eagle Media does have three branches. Do you guys want to talk about what your involvement has been in each branch, what you've done so far, and what you're looking forward to do next? I guess I'll start. Personally, for me, currently, I haven't actually had much involvement with any of the three branches. I'm trying to do more of the writing for the news, Eagle News, and then I'm currently actually here right now, I guess, for Eagle Radio doing a podcast. But, with the Eagle TV, I haven't actually done anything with them. I'm just not going to be physically here enough to help them. That's really it for me on that one. But, for the most part, the other two are, like, I'm trying to help. It's just figuring out time and place, right? Right. For me, I've been mostly active on the Eagle News, like writing news articles, doing reviews of, like, movies. Everything is, like, written. So, I really like it and enjoy it, especially as a communications major with a concentration in public relations. I'm trying to upgrade my writing skills so I could be more marketable for my employers once I graduate in December. So, I've also, well, now I'm in the radio, so I'm also involved in the Eagle Radio. And, as George said, I've not been really involved in EMTV, especially because, like, my times are not the same as theirs. So, I haven't been able to be involved, although I do one. So, I'm trying to get my schedule right so I can do all of these different activities. Right. Yeah. So, my involvement, as well, has been fairly limited. Not much going on. I've been to a couple of events, tabling events, and that's mostly recruiting other members to join Eagle Media. And I've been to a handful of meetings. Once again, not a lot of opportunities, really, with a full-time job and a full-time school schedule. But I'm trying to make it work. And it's been okay so far. But, you know, just bear in mind those opportunities can be a little scarce some weeks. So, you have to plan ahead and get in as many hours as you can so that you're not cramming before December or summer or what have you for graduation. Gotcha. And what do those opportunities look like, if you don't mind explaining for me, the ones that you've participated in so far? So, one of the ones that I've participated in is brought up was, right, tabling. That's just simply recruiting more people to join Eagle Media. The other ones that, personally, I haven't done yet, but will be doing, which is writing for the news, right? You can write articles for them whenever they need them or write opinion pieces. I think there's also brought up writing for movie reviews and such, right? I haven't done any of them personally as of yet, but from what I understand, someone here has. So, I'll let them talk more about that. Yeah, I've done lots of pieces, writing pieces, especially opinions. Like, for example, we get a topic. Like, each week they send an email about, like, five, six topics, and then you choose the one that you're more inclined to do. For example, I've done tips and tricks to succeed in university. I've done how to get on the phone mode and organization skills, like, different kind of stuff. I've enjoyed that, writing. I think that's what I enjoy the most. I've also done tabling, which, as I said, is recruiting more people, and because FGCU has, like, the service learning requirement, it is great for many students, because they can get, like, their service learning hours just by, like, writing a movie review or going to the meetings or, like, doing opinion pieces. So, yeah, because of that requirement, we do the tabling. We try to get as many student involvement as we can, as well as for them to get more experience with Eagle Media. Perfect. So, I know we've talked a lot about the physical internship, but I want to segue and talk a little bit more about your physical majors. So, for me, as a marketing major, I know that that differs a lot from communication, similar ideas, but I just want to know, like, personally, like, what have your courses been like, what's the structure of that, because it makes sense to get the background, which I probably should have done first, but it's most important to do it whenever. Yeah, right. So, for communications, like, as I mentioned before, I'm a dual major. I'm majoring in psychology with a concentration in neuroscience and cognition, and I'm also majoring in communications with a concentration in public relations. So, my courses have been balanced. It's been a lot of science, a lot of writing, and I've enjoyed each part of both of my majors. So, for the structures of my courses, I, like, for the psychology part, I've done a lot of research. I've done internships for the psychology part. I've done internships with kids, behavior, counseling, and this is why, for this semester, I tried to do one regarding communication, and that's why it shows Eagle Media, and yeah, the structures can be different depending on the classes you take. Some are more hands-on experience. Others are more, like, writing, reading the books, and doing the presentations and stuff. So, one of the classes that I'm doing currently for my communications major is campaigns. So, the structure of the class is basically just developing a full campaign for a client and, yeah, getting experience when you go out there and you have an actual job and you need to do a campaign. You know how to do the research. You know how to do the whole planning process. You know how to make a professional and eye-catching looking campaign, and that's basically the whole structure of the course. So, for the whole semester, like, you start by steps. Like, the first step is, like, seeing who's your client, then seeing what's the issue with your client, and defining the issue, and then after, you know, it's like steps. Every week, we do something different. Then you do a tour to your client's place, like their company, and then you start brainstorming for strategies, tactics, objectives. Yeah, it's like a whole process. So, like I said, for each course, it can be different. It just depends on the requirements. Yeah, so with my major, communications, concentration in public relations, it has been very satisfying, honestly. You know, it has been a great program. The teachers are actually excellent. You know, they actually care. They're very rooted in the public relations area locally, so they have pretty good employer communications and networking abilities to get you hired with a good employer in the area, and I have been hard-pressed to find teachers and professors that are as caring and nice as these guys, and I'm really grateful for them because they have made me really enjoy what I'm going to school for. They care. They're very nice. I enjoy writing personally, and it really gives me an opportunity to really shine in that way, which I enjoy. So, it is a really good major. I have no qualms about that. It's very good, and even though I'm looking forward to graduating very soon, I will be a little sad leaving them, but it really is a great opportunity, and anyone on the fence with majors should really look into communication and public relations because it was not my first choice, but I'm glad it was my last choice. That's really important to know because it really is those experiences that matter the most when it comes to college, which lets me tie into my next question. What courses would you say has benefited you most for your current work experience with Eagle Media? And that can be favorite courses as well, depending on whether it's your professor that made the course, whether it's the course material, etc., but the course that's best benefited you towards your work experience. For me, I think the one that I can think of from the courses that I've done was just the course that was human communications, right? It just taught you how people act and why they act the way they do and how, like, people talk a lot and doesn't necessarily mean they are communicating or are...it's easy for them to do that, right? And a lot of, like, how they physically are standing or doing, right, whatever they're doing, are all part of that communication process, even if they're not really speaking, right? You can still tell things about a person, even if they're not really talking to you or even near you, like, right, you can see someone and you can tell a lot from that person, right? That course has taught me a fair bit on just, like, how broad human communication can get with how it is applied in the world. Right. For my answer, I had to go back and add to what Robert said for the public relations sector in this university. It's amazing. Like he said, communications wasn't, like, communications and concentration in public relations wasn't my first choice, but I enjoyed it so much. The professors have been amazing, great support. So I really can't say my favorite class, but I can definitely say it's the classes that I've taken for public relations, starting with research, writing, campaigning, principles of campaign, all of them, I've enjoyed exactly the same because the professors have made it unique in their own ways. We've been able to learn a lot. So I couldn't decide. I just want to say that it's been an amazing journey. Each class has taught me something different, something that I'm going to definitely use once I graduate, if I work, like, in public relations and communications. So I just, I'm just very thankful about the classes that I've taken. And I can definitely say that all of them have been my favorite so far. Well, as far as my favorite during my college career, it's a tie between two classes. One class I took in 2020, right before COVID went down, was this class called professional development with Robert Whitehead. And that has to be one of my favorite classes of all time. And Robert Whitehead is the cornerstone for professionalism. He is the man. I learned a lot in his class. He taught me a lot of excellent qualities to have, to make yourself shine towards your employers and anyone interviewing you. He is fantastic. Elevator speeches, posture, you name it, he's got it all. He really is a great professor. I couldn't push that class hard enough. It's fantastic. My second class would be public relations strategies with Bethany Petrie. And she is another woman who is just amazing on every level. And she is, she truly cares about her kids. And it shows. And I really learned a lot in that class as well. She is fantastic. I had her for three semesters. I wish it could have been four. She's great. She taught me a lot of wonderful qualities also. And between Robert Whitehead and Bethany Petrie, they have made those classes that probably would have been boring with anyone else. They made them interesting and engaging. And they are two fantastic people. I am very grateful that I had them. Yeah, to add to what Robert said, I keep adding because as he's also a communications major with a concentration in PR, we have taken the same courses and then most of them with the same professors. And I want to add to what he said, Professor Petrie, Dr. Petrie. And I also want to add about Professor Kennedy, which I'm taking right now for campaigns. They have done an amazing job. Like, I couldn't be happier with the choices that I got. And I'm really excited when I graduate and I can put into practice everything that I've learned from them. So to circle back to the internship, how would you say this experience or internship has added to your experience? So if you've already had a job or another internship, how would it compare? How would it contrast? For me, I don't have a whole lot of actual work experience to put on my resume. So this is just to add to it overall. It's like, you know, we go to meetings, you write. Sort of what you would expect from this type of internship, right, working with a media group. So it's like, I don't personally have anything that I could say that can add it up. Anything? For me, I think the thing that I'm going to take the most out of this internship is like the writing skills, which I'm going to use a lot in public relations. Public relations require a lot of psychology because you have to persuade, convince, change perspectives. So these also tie into the other two or three internships that I've done on my behavioral stuff with psychology major, like working with kids, helping them, counseling, being counselors, and different internships. So I've learned a lot about each of the internships that I've done. And in Eagle Media especially, I've learned how to upgrade my writing skills and how to communicate somewhat better with other students. For example, during tabling, I can just talk to them and like ask them questions, what they're interested about. I can tell them a little bit more about Eagle Media and why we're a good option for them. Yeah, everything, like little things from there and there have given me a lot of experience on the writing aspect. Yeah, as far as experience from Eagle Media, I really haven't had much to be honest with you. I had a lot of things that I already brought from my job of eight years to contribute as far as communication goes and writing goes and things like that. They haven't really taught me much, but I will say that it has been good to talk to people in the events and communicate with them because then you can, you know, network and they can they can help you out. And that's really about it. I haven't had any writing experience of Eagle Media yet, and I'm looking forward to doing that. But the communication aspect of it has been very enjoyable, I must say. All right, does anyone have anything else to add as we are wrapping it up here? The only thing that I want to add is specifically to those majors that need an internship in order to graduate. I want to give you some advice. Don't wait till the last semester. Try to do it with time. Try to research the internship options you have. Don't go with the first one. Try to make sure that it aligns with what you expect, what you want to do when you graduate. Yeah, try to get as much information as you can. So once you know that you're ready, then you can choose it. For example, if you do it on any semester, try to have all the paperwork done. Don't wait till the last minute because you need to sign the agreements. You need to do some paperwork. You might have to do interviews. So don't leave anything to the last minute because, as you know, you are going to have required hours and you need to make sure you get them before graduation. That's why I would not recommend waiting till the last semester. Maybe the semester before last could be best because that's when you'll have a lot of experience from the classes you've already taken. And then you can just apply, be ready, and then get all this other experience that is out there for you. I think that's everything that I can tell you about that. Well, thank you, Erica, George, and Robert for joining us today and talking about your internship experience, your courses, your major, and your time at Eagle Media. And it's been a blast to hear everybody's input and everybody's experience. So next week, we're hoping to have more members on to talk about their internship experience. So thank you for tuning in and listening to The Intern.