OCS Internship Midterm Reflection

While I feel that a large part of my preparation for this internship came from my work as a Twitch streamer, I would assert that it was my work in my Digital Writing course that first opened up my mind to the possibilities of writing outside of the academic context. Running a Twitter page and creating digital documents & graphic designs were genres of writing I had never considered before – usually, when people think of writing, the first professions that come to mind are teacher, author, or journalist, but Digital Writing expanded my perspective of professional writing into things I found a lot more enjoyable and creative. I was fortunate to have work-study at the same time I was taking the course, so I was able to continue practicing what I’d learned at ODU Health Promotion by making flyers, Instagram content, and even a freshmen orientation exercise centered on Title IX. This writing felt meaningful to me, as I could help educate my fellow students on leading healthier lives in order to reach their academic and personal goals. Ultimately, this experience was what made me decide to pursue this career path, as I would ideally want to put my writing skills to use for a purpose that helps people and impacts lives, even if the impact is so small as to be unnoticeable.

            The most thought-provoking insight I’ve gained from my academic career has been from my Writing in the Disciplines course. In week 3 of this semester, we were assigned the course text, “Creating a Writer’s Identity on the Boundaries of Two Communities of Practice” written by Ketter & Hunter, and I deeply identified with the subject of their study, Erin Peterson (Ketter & Hunter, 2003). Erin was also a professional writing student embarking on an internship in public relations with her university, and she was intent on navigating her identity from obedient student in academia to capable professional in her own right. She is met with challenges like balancing the expectations of her various audiences while simultaneously staying true to herself and asserting her agency as an emerging writer. In this, I could relate, as I too am trying my best to give my supervisors what they want, while also keeping in mind the student audience I am writing for, and still maintaining some semblance of self for my portfolio.

            As an example, I was informed when I began this internship that one of my main goals was to create marketing content for the Office of Counseling Services, encouraging more students to come in and use their free mental health care services. I would be doing this through mostly two mediums – the official ODU Counseling Services website and our Instagram page. I was under the impression my work would lean a little more towards content writing for our Instagram, but for the past seven weeks, it’s been heavily focused on making user-friendly edits to our website and creating new pages for the upcoming launch of the Red Folder campaign, an initiative aimed towards assisting students in mental health crisis. While I do find this work gratifying and important, I have my doubts about the effectiveness of the website, particularly for the student body. The objective of my work as a Communication & Marketing intern is to get more students to come to our office and our events, and while the website has a lot of information, it doesn’t exactly encourage people to want to visit. Essentially, the people using our website are the people who already intend to use our services. If we’re trying to bring in new students who haven’t made use of our services, we need to be reaching out to the ones who either aren’t aware our office exists, don’t know what we do, or may be on the fence about coming in. This is where our Instagram should come into play – not only will we reach more students through SEO, collaboration with other offices, and overall social media engagement, but the visual experience we create on the page will reflect the calm, welcoming atmosphere we work so hard to maintain in the office to make students feel safe and break the stigma around mental health.

            Regardless, I understand my work is only that of an intern, and I plan to continue performing within the constraints of my position. It’s not my place to radically change how we run things around here, and much like Erin in Ketter & Hunter’s study, I can assert my agency through my writing in other ways. I take pride in what I create for our Instagram page, as this is where I have the most creative freedom, and once this internship comes to an end, I will have plenty of material for my portfolio, even if a lot of it has been changed beyond recognition from the original product. What I found most profound in the Ketter & Hunter study was that Erin learned to be aware of the expectations of her various audiences, and still found ways to break the mold from unhappy student writer who only gave her professors what they wanted, to independent, original thinker, unafraid to take (some) risks if it meant she could be true to herself (Ketter & Hunter, 2003). This is the biggest lesson I will take away from this internship as I transition from student to professional – while I must adjust to the needs of whatever professional discourse community I become a part of, I can still be a member who contributes knowledge, rather than a mere onlooker. It will take reaching a point where I’m established enough to have the power to enact the changes I want to see, but I’m willing to build myself up to get there.

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Works Cited

Ketter, Jean, and Judy Hunter. “Creating a Writer’s Identity on the Boundaries of Two Communities of Practice.” Writing Selves/Writing Societies: Research from Activity Perspectives, 1 Feb. 2003, pp. 307–329, https://doi.org/10.37514/per-b.2003.2317.2.09.