Week Seven - Parking and Press Releases

Back Commons Area

As my internship winds down, I've realized I've done far more writing than I have been editing. When we were in class learning about putting together our poster presentation, I immediately decided I wanted one section devoted to writing and another to editing. I was trying to think back to how much editing I've done, but the only editing I've really accomplished is my own. Once I write something, I then go back and edit it.

That brings me to this week. I put the finishing touches on the press release for SustainU, and had it uploaded to the web here. I sent a completed version to Dusty, but there were tow extra things he was intereted in me adding. One, he thought the fact that SustainU expanded from one license to 50 licenses in less than a year is very impressive. Apparently, it is, but licenses are something that jump out at me, coming from a journalism/English standpoint. From Dusty's view, however, he being the lawyer that he is, licesnes are very important and show how accomplished he is. The other thing was to add his specific modeling company, Ford Models, because that's big time.

Now, I am working on another press release for Videntity, a company that recently won a $10,000 award for a developer challenge. Dusty is really exciting about this because apparently the tenant has been in one particular stage for awhile, and this extra money will help move the tenant forward. I'm only in the beginning stages of working on this press release, as I have to actually find out more about the company. It's a very complex company, and the challenge they won is very specific to this certain type of technology. It's a little hard to handle for those who aren't fluent in this area, so I'm basically attempting to translate the language for a regular audience at this point.

In the realm of personal business, I have to leave early due to the Thursday night football game against USF. It's not my choice -- I don't get to go; I'll be at work anyway. But when I came in, Jo told me we are all leaving at 3:30 because WVU sells the parking spots at the WVU Business Incubator lot for $20. This surprised me - I didn't know WVU could profit through selling out their own spots for the game. I thought that would be more like an official pass, sort of thing. Instead, it's like those people you see let others park on their lawn for $20. On the plus side, I have an early day! 

Week Five - Researching and Releases

WVU Business Incubator Conference Room

As Week Five comes to an end, I really think I've learned a lot so far. I've learned the basic essentials for many typical documents in a variety of businesses.

These documents have made me take into account the audience that will read them (some for professionals, some for the average Internet browser) as well as the tone we are trying to portray (very professional, but like a helpful parent).

For this week, it was much more relaxed, and I appreciate that. Dusy knows I will be heading to Las Vegas this weekend, and he has given me more time to work on projects, and the deadlines have been more lax. This week, I worked on writing a press release for SustainU, a graduate tenant of the Business Incbuator.

The tenant spoke at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. This is good exposure for the company, as it will be posted on the front page of the WVU Business Incubator website. The first thing I need to think about is the audience - the people who will be reading this are probably Morgantown residents or attend WVU. But, it needs to be universal, as this will probably be sent out to multiple news sources (probably the DA, too. Eek). Most of my work up until this point has been listening to the lecture, researching the company and contacting people. Now, I need to put this whole document together! I really like writing press releases because you can be creative with them, so this is definitely a nice break from straight document work.

Hopefully he likes what I can produce - this will definitely look great on the front page, and it'll keep me on my toes.

Week Four - Patents and Paper

Entrance to WVU Business Incubator

I continued my work with the social media project. This time, however, I searched the web for patents.  I looked at major social networking sites to see which patents they were listed under. For example, Twitter and WordPress are both listed under (42) Use of internet for engaging in internet publishing. I basically compiled a bunch to see where this network would fall.

It was really interesting looking through the giants of social media (Facebook, Twitter, WordPress). I sometimes forget that much of this information is public, and we can, free of charge, look up who has patents and what their use is.

Not only is this helpful with my internship, but this helps me elsewhere. Being a journalist, I am constantly scouring the internet for information, and this is yet another resource I'll have to file away to use when necessary.

When I was searching for all these patents, I had to print them out after I found ones that matched. Well, I sent about 20 documents to the printer. When I went over there, I realized only two printed, and Matt had to fix the printer for me.When I said everyone here wears many different hats, I wasn't joking. Matt = graphic designer, website designer, technology, printer fixer.

The other document I spent a lot of time on this week was a service agreement for one of their tenants: Scientific Arts. This is basically drafting a document the tenant can give to clients that says what the type of work will be, arrange payment and deadlines.

This is such a basic document that any business at some point needs. It's fantastic I am getting to work on these things. This new skill set is so diverse, and I've already worked with a number of different documents. I can't wait to try some more.

My photo is also now on their website. Yep, pretty embarrassing. But, I'm definitely a part of the group now.

Week Three - Terms and Talking

WVU Business Incubator logo

I continued working on terms and conditions this week. We moved further into the editing and revising stage. I gathered a bunch of different samples (like 50 to be exact) and mushed them all up to take bits and pieces from each one, depending on what I liked best.

Now, I am slowly sifting through to get rid of everything I don't need and narrowing it to a specific focus. Dusty is looking over them, and I made edits to hopefully get a working version completed by next Tuesday.

He sent the split letter to the tenant last week and is waiting to hear back. I will most likely be doing a lot of editing Tuesday between these terms and conditions and the split letter. Fortunately, I love editing. I enjoy the whole researching stage as well, but I really like digging in to get that finished product. This could be said about my passion for the newspaper industry, as well. I always prefer editing over actually writing.

Why? Maybe because I'm a perfectionist. I like taking this rough document/article/whatever and shaping it to become something that can be used as a legal document/piece of literature/whatever. I like having that helping hand in making something complete.

The environment here is becoming more comfortable, too. Just today, I had my picture taken for the website. Unfortunately it monsooned here, so my hair is a hot mess, but regardless, having my photo on the website makes me feel more included in this small family. Whenever it is updated, it will appear here: http://wvubi.com/staff/.

Along those same lines, I've been talking with the other intern, a corporate services intern. I can honestly say I like every single person I work with. They all have these different characteristics, and everyone just seems to mesh well together so well. Dusty is the head honcho and very goal-driven. Jo is like a mother, but she is the accountant. Matt does all graphics/tech/photography necessary, and the other intern, Anne, works with marketing. I deal with writing and editing. We all have our little niches, and I like it this way. Beyond how talented they are, they are fantastic people. I feel at home, and I'm now just ending week three.

Beginning

I came about my internship with the WVU Business Incubator in a strange way. I actually applied for an internship there for summer 2010. I was searching for internships at that time, and I saw they took on professional writing and editing interns. I decided to apply; however, my internship with USA Today came along, and I spent much of my summer in McLean, Va.

A week before school started, I heard back from the Business Incubator and they asked if I was still interested. I mentioned that I did, in fact, have to have an internship for my PWE capstone and they replied that they have worked with my capstone coordinator, Scott Wible. After an interview, I successfully have an internship with the Business Incubator that I hope to start this week.

I need to finalize my schedule and the contract, but I'm very excited to get going, and I wanted to provide some background as to why I'm blogging about my experiences.