Making a Difference in the City

By Alexandra Salerno, Tuesday, May 22, 2012, at 4:25 pm.

I’ve never worked in a city before, much less lived in one. Although I only started interning at @erwwpr a week ago, I really feel a part of the company and the city. Being able to work on One Young World (OYW) promotion with Shay, Cassie and Anne (the other interns and my newest friends in the city!) is more than a dream. I could make an endless list of the things I’ve discovered after only five days of interning, but I’ll keep it short:

1. Lists are important. For OYW promotion and other tasks I’ve been assigned at the office, making contact and media lists is a common occurrence. Yet, as dull as it might sound, the finished product of a thorough contact list is pretty rewarding. I’m starting to just write down the phone numbers, emails and websites for any contact I happen to come across—I might need it later!
2. Never underestimate organization. We’re busy, busy, busy here at @erwwpr. Despite all the work the interns are doing for OYW, it is not our only project. Being organized is the key to keeping everything together. Juggling many different tasks is my favorite thing about this internship.
3. Pittsburgh is a beautiful city. I was lucky enough to draw a “1” out of a hat on the first day to land a real office. My window overlooks the PPG Place fountain, and each time I glance up from my computer I can’t help but smile. I’m right in the middle of this fantastic city, soon to host more than 1,000 youth from all over the world. Since I’m living in the One Young House all summer, I’m in the middle of creating a city bucket list. I hope to finish checking things off my list by my last day at @erwwpr in August. First stop? The market in the Strip District. I’ve lived a half-hour from the city most of my life and have never been there!
4. You know you love work when you talk about it outside of work. Lunch with the girls is inevitably filled with girl talk, but it’s surprisingly also filled with work talk. We love discussing our OYW progress and ideas we have for promotions and social media. It’s so great to be able to collaborate on ideas and be creative together. Despite being at work from 8:30 to 5:30, we talk and tweet about OYW after hours. We’re genuinely excited to be a part of this amazing opportunity, which makes all the difference.

The One Young House posts on our blog document the experiences of four students participating in a unique and immersive internship with @erwwpr in Pittsburgh. Our main project is promoting the One Young World summit, a pro bono initiative of @erwwpr and Havas that’s coming to Pittsburgh in October. We will be sharing our experiences with traditional and social media relations, grassroots events and community presentations while living together as a team, operating out of One Young House.

[photo: Cassie Lenski]

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012 at 4:25 pm. It is filed under CSR, Features, One Young House, PR, Social Media, Youth and tagged with interns, internship, One Young House, One Young World, Pittsburgh, Twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.