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 One

WVU Business Incubator

For my first week with the WVU Business Incubator, I interned for 10 hours. Although I was showed around when I first interviewed, this time, I was able to go to my own cubicle (which is huge), and get my computer log-on.

When the managerial paperwork was completed, my first task when I went in on Tuesday was to determine my schedule for the remainder of the semester. At first, I thought this would simply be Tuesday from 1:30 to 6:30 and Thursday from 12:30 to 5:30. Sounds simple, right?

Well, Dusty informed me that I should write down every Tuesday and every Thursday and the exact amount of hours I will work. He's a smart guy - I really liked this idea. I wrote down the hours for every Tuesday and every Thursday for the rest of the semester, and I saw that certain days conflicted. For example, I can't work on Election Day (Nov. 2) because WVU is closed.

So, I have my entire schedule for the internship, and we have worked out the exact number of hours I need. I'm happy I won't have to be frantic when I realize something falls on a Tuesday or Thursday because we have back-up days, and I have already allotted for the days I know I won't be available. This gives me a great sense of ease, and I put it in this nifty calendar format that I think Dusty appreciated.

On Thursday, Dusty and I talked about a list of tasks I can begin. I'm very excited because they are all very interesting - such as creating a document that transfers rights of a song from one party to another, helping a nonprofit develop bylaws and a marketing plan for an up-and-coming company. These are all new to me, and I just want to jump in.

We decided, however, to begin with a social media project. A woman wants to begin a community blogging site for women who suffer with breast cancer. Her mother had breast cancer and documented her journey with the disease in a series of journals - this is what inspired the girl to create this community type of therapy. To begin, she needs a working "terms and conditions." (To protect the privacy and so the site wouldn't be held accountable for private information). I spent hours researching various sites' terms and conditions that are similar to what this site would be, such as other community blogging sites, Facebook and Twitter. I have complied these into about a 50 page document, and I believe I will be whittling these down and taking the portions that apply to use to make a working document for this new company.

I think there are a lot of fun things planned (fun, that is, according to an English/Journalism major), and I am ready to really get cranking the second week.

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.