About the author: Christine Reed is an intern with Marketing Department at the Masonic Village at Dallas. She is pursuing an Associate of Arts degree in Journalism and Media Writing from Luzerne County Community College.
As my summer internship comes to a close, I reflect back on what I accomplished while interning. I was able to really bring what I learned in class to the forefront.
I always had a plan of how my semesters would work at Luzerne County Community College. When I was about to start my second and last year, I knew the only way to complete an internship would be during the summer. You see, I also work at Misericordia University during the school year. My only other obligation in the summer is working at Irem Clubhouse, so I have more free time on my hands to intern.
I started looking into internships in the beginning of the year, but I was also looking into how my internship would affect my work schedule. I started to think about the possibility of an internship with Masonic Villages at Dallas which shares property with the Irem Clubhouse.
It took me a few weeks to get a chance to ask Joy Hubshman in the Marketing Office if she did internships in her department. Luckily, she does. I spoke with my advisor, Andy Petonak, and he was on board with the idea and started the process of getting approval from the school and from Masonic Village. On May 17th, I started my internship.
I had the chance to work on some amazing projects, one of them being the summer photo shoot that took place at the end of June. I got to see firsthand the process of what happens at a photo shoot. It was interesting to see how everything came together, from the way certain photos were taken, all the way to different equipment being used. It was also unique to see the photos first and to pick which ones we thought were the best to send off to Masonic Villages’ Public Relations Office, located in Elizabethtown.
One of my other projects ended up being the blog posts I got to write. I played around with a few different story ideas I thought would be interesting for people to read. In total there were about 10 topics. I enjoyed going around to the different spots for each blog post like Hillside Farms, Brace’s Orchard and the rooftop garden. I was somehow able to incorporate my culinary background into these posts because most of the spots were food related.
Some of the other projects I had to do were to create Facebook posts and write the Happenings page calendar for Irem Clubhouse.
For my article on the rooftop garden at Masonic Village, I had the chance to speak with one of the residents who lives in the apartments. Her name is Thelma Russ. I asked some simple questions about what kind of herbs she likes to pick from the rooftop garden. I spoke with her for more than half an hour, and in that time, I learned so much about Thelma. Like how she dislikes the fish selection in this area because she use to live in Massachusetts by the water where she had some of the freshest fish you can imagine. But her love for cooking and using the freshest herbs is what we talked about the most.
I want to thank Joy and Masonic Villages for allowing me do my summer internship with the organization. I learned a lot more about what Joy does and how much time goes into planning some of the events.
