By Izabelle Dessi

            During this past semester I was given the opportunity to work with Skollar PR as an intern. Throughout the semester I was able to help with creating press releases, pitch letters, and pitch decks, sending emails to news outlets and clients, create publicity schedules for the clients (this includes a list of upcoming events or interviews so that the clients know what they have to plan for), press breaks (which is a breakdown of articles or interview published about the clients that we send to them so they can see or read it). I also helped out with creating interview requests so since I helped email the news outlets and clients, I would create a document for the client about who and what publication wanted to interview them.

            I think in the beginning I was in a way surprised that I was able to communicate so much with the clients and the news outlets. I was able to be more hands-on and work with the people I was creating the press content for and it was really nice to be able to do. I think this really helped me be able to learn the most because I was involved in a lot of the different aspects of the company/job.

            When I first started the internship, I had a basic understanding of public relations from classes I had taken in my major and some of the other jobs I previously had. I was a little slow probably the first couple of days or weeks because there were so many different aspects of public relations that I had not been able to really work on. I remember my boss, Liz Skollar, telling me on my first week not to worry about it so much once you start doing it more you’ll get the hang of it and it will be a lot easier.

            She was definitely right because after working on it so many times and seeing her examples of work I was able to really understand it. I slowly started to do more things and was given more responsibilities. This allowed me to become more confident in my work and really enjoy working. I have had a couple of internships before this that have all been involved in different parts of media but I think out of all of them, I think I learned the most from this one. I was able to be involved and really work on all of the work and was able to express myself in the writing. Liz always gave me good feedback that allowed me to really improve my work and I like working on it all. When we were able to see the impacts of our work to help the clients, it is really amazing to see. Especially when they get interviews that are published in articles or shown on TV, you were able to have a part in it.

            Now that the semester is over I am very glad that I was able to work with Skollar PR because I was able to work on so many different things that I can apply to my future career. I was able to work on writing, communication with news outlets and clients, and organization. There were a lot of emails from different clients to news outlets and sometimes it seems like a lot, so being organized and communicating is something that is key. And I was able to improve my writing skills by writing all the different press releases and pitch letters for the different clients, making sure they were tailored to them to be able to attract journalists and outlets to help the clients.

            I am so glad that I was able to work with Skollar PR this past semester and learn from my supervisor, Liz. Being able to get course credit for this and being able to gain experience, is something I am very thankful for. I realized how much I enjoy working in Public Relations and hope to be able to continue with it in the future.