My blogs over the course of internship -- Jan 5th-Feb 3rd
Pre-Internship Blog -- What are you looking forward to most about your internship experience?
I'm really looking forward to have a break the school cycle I’ve been dealing with for the past few months. It's been a little too stressful and I'm excited for a much needed change of pace. It’ll be fun to see if I really enjoy writing and design as a whole and if I would maybe want to do something around that in the future. My internship place looks very promising and unique, my mentor is also really nice! I’m really looking forward to seeing how it all turns out :)
1/8/23 (week one) -- What are you most surprised by during your first couple days of internship and why? Post an image that shows what surprises you
In the first 2 days of internship so far, quite a lot has happened. I had to write my very first blog about myself for SDWI's website (I'll be featured in their newsletter soon!), and we had our "First Friday" event in Liberty Station (where we're located). The event went smoothly and we had a lot of people show up to our poetry reading and a few people stuck around to look at the art pieces showcased. I then went on my very first internship "mission" (as my mentor calls it) where I walked around the event space and talked to about 11 different artists and gathered their information to make a blog about later. It was an overall fun few days and I hope the rest of internship is this exciting!
These are some of the images I took on my first day -- they're some of the art we have from Josie Rodriguez for our "First Friday" events (until March 3rd)
1/10/23 (week 2) -- Describe your internship project. What will you be doing? What will the final product look like?
I'll be making a zine (basically a less professional, mini magazine) about my time here at San Diego Writers, Ink. I'll be including people I've met/worked with, the website and maybe some of my blogs, quotes from my mentor interview and a different artist interview, and of course plenty of local artwork from artists around Liberty Station!
This is the front cover, and it's nothing too special right now but I'm excited to see where this project takes me! I'm designing this in Canva since my internship has the premium version.
1/13/23 (week 2) -- How do you see yourself growing or changing over the course of your internship?
So far, my writing skills have already improved from the small amount of writing classes I've sat in on and participated in. I feel that my time management and independent working have already gotten much better. I've also used 3-4 new websites and tools that I can put on my resume! I'm super happy with the work I've done already and by the end of internship. I'm going to be so proud of everything I accomplished.
This was a 6 paragraph free write I did in under 2 hours in the second person (which I've never used before) and I'm super proud of it. I did in during SDWI's "Room to Write"
1/17/23 (week 3) -- Choose your favorite photos from internship so far—post these highlight photos and a caption explaining what we see and what makes this significant to you.
These are all images of the art we showed at our First Friday event. I helped make labels for them! We had beautiful beeswax paintings made by Josie Rodriguez, an inspiration tree where you can write your goals and hopes for this new year, earrings made by Josie Rodriguez's husband, and a poetry reading (which I wasn't able to capture). I've never been to, let alone helped lead an event like this, and it was an amazing and wonderful experience. Seeing all of these people excited to hear poetry and see artwork, was so wonderful and I loved every minute of it.
1/19/23 (week 3) -- What are you thankful for in your internship experience?
First off, I'm thankful for the school to give us an opportunity to do something like this. It's super unique and exciting to do an internship for a month through school and explore some real-world stuff. I'm very thankful that my mentor is super nice and is a wonderful teacher (I've heard some not so great stuff about friend's mentors unfortunately). I'm thankful + happy that I'm making blogs (at my internship) that people are actually seeing and talking about. And I'm super thankful for the experience I've had as a whole so far.
These are some of the blogs I've worked on and are actually posted on the San Diego Writers, Ink website right now! :)
1/24/23 (week 4) -- Who is your mentor? Describe her life, education, career path and more.
My mentor is Kristen Fogle, Executive Director of San Diego Writers, Ink since 2013. She went to a bunch of different colleges and switched her major about 6-7 times eventually graduating with her Masters from San Diego State University. First thing she did out of college was become a magazine editor for a bunch of smaller magazines. She's interviewed Taylor Swift, the Kardashians, small bands who are super popular now, etc. while working for the magazine companies. After that, she was primarily working from home and stumbled upon Writers Ink. After discovering it, she was tossed into the editor position and has been here ever since.
1/27/23 (week 4) -- What is going well with your project? What challenges are you facing?
My project is going super well, I love what I get to make. I've been working on my zine for the past week (with pretty much no assignments from my internship) and it's looking really nice. I don't think I'm having any challenges? No big issues at least -- I've just been struggling to find stuff to put in the zine. I'm only at 6 pages and still need about 2-4 more and unfortunately I don't have a lot left I can add. Otherwise I'm having fun and can't wait to spend my last week here working hard!
1/30/23 (week 5) -- Last week of internship!! - Describe what you are most thankful for in your internship experience!
I'm so thankful for this opportunity to explore something I'm really interested in that I maybe wouldn't have explored on my own time. I could 100% use some of the stuff I've done/learned this month in the future after high school and college. As I've said before, I'm so happy our school does this so we can have a peak into our future and what we could be interested in. Not many people get this experience outside of school, let alone inside of school!
Their website is currently under construction, but you can find the many things I've posted in the "blog" section
1/30/23 (week 5) - Additional blog post - What I've been doing!
Most of my internship is online so unfortunately I don't have many pictures of what I've been doing. So far this month, I've learned how to use Canva, WordPress, Neon, and learned more of Wix and other google applications. I've written 3 blogs, one artist interview, and a small article which have all been posted on San Diego Writers, Ink's website. It's amazing how much I feel I've accomplished this month. Today, I went into my internship for about 30 minutes to meet with my mentor and another friend, and drove home in rain. I'm currently, eating waffles, working on my IPOL and catching up on blogs, adding some small things to my project, drinking a london fog I made for myself, and enjoying the rainy weather! This is how my internship has been going most of the month which I love, I have my own schedule and my own accountability which I definitely prefer. Though, I am happy to get back to school since I've missed all of my friends and I'm looking forward to second semester.
1/--/23 (week 5) - Final day!! - What advice would you pass on to future interns?
I'm so happy with my whole internship experience, it was so wonderful. I'm thinking about what I would tell my pre-internship self after going through this whole month. First, teachers stress you out beforehand telling you stuff like "if you don't do this, this and this you'll FAIL 11TH GRADE and have to RETAKE IT AND WONT GRADUATE!!" and that scared me so much, I wasn't able to enjoy the entire internship experience without being worried about if I'm getting enough hours or if I'm writing enough blogs for the school. I want to tell my past self and future interns to not stress about the hours and blogs so much and to have fun in your internship! Still make sure you're getting enough hours and stuff ofc, but don't make that your entire focus. Second, I know you're probably nervous, even if you're like "nah it's gonna be great, I'm not nervous," you probably still have some nerves. It's most likely not anxiety and its excitement! You're excited for your internship and it's completely normal to have some first-day jitters -- don't be worried, it's all going to go amazing I promise<3. Third, your IPOL and your project are very important yes, and you should be making sure those are well done for when the end of internship rolls around. BUUTTT having fun and doing things at your internship that don't revolve around school work (project, IPOL, blogs, etc) is also super important!! Immerse yourself in your work, this is a wonderful opportunity! And finally, this month is going to have a lot of ups and downs (hopefully mostly ups) and it's going to be wonderful. You'll look back on this month and reminisce on the experiences you had, friends you made, and work you accomplished.
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I'm gonna miss my internship and I'm excited to begin my second semester of 11th grade!
