My name is Heather Lavers and I am in my 3rd year of PR.
My 1st co-op was with the Calgary Board of Education and this was a wonderful experience! This is a great team of professionals who treated me like family and like a contributing member of the team. Barb Kuester is an amazing mentor and was always willing to lend an ear to any questions I had. I gained experience in: event planning (I planned two groundbreakings, coordinating the planning team and handing most of the logistics) speech writing (all students get to write speeches for the Lighthouse Awards which are presented at a board meeting each month) Writing articles for both the internet and intranet (I got to interview, take photo's and pitch story ideas) Brouchure Design (I designed a brouchure to promote middle schools to parents) Communications Plan (wrote a comm plan as a team)
I also had the chance to sit in on various planning meetings and I felt like I truely grew as a communications professional.
I am now on my 2nd co-op with the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) Nova Scotia. Here in Halifax this has been an incredible experience so far. I really didn't expect two amazing opportunities back-to-back but that is what happened. This is an incredible group of professional communicators and I feel like a fully integrated member of the communications team.
My experiences so far have been: Web work (I maintain and update the intranet. Post/archive articles, update staff pages, etc) article writing (I have written several articles for the NS intranet, as well as,the main ACOA intranet. event materials (I have written a speech, backgrounder, press release and assisted with events held by other communications officers) I have also been able to pitch article and intranet ideas, they love inititative and creativity here! I have also designed a poster, take photos at events and get to attend various learning events that take place in the city for public service employees.
I highly recommend CBE and ACOA NS for other students!
My name is Britney Goucher and I am also in my third year at MSVU of PR.
I am now rounding the bend to my last quarter of my second work term placement. But let's start from the beginning.
Anyone experiencing job interview blues-hang in there! I cannot even begin to express how many interviews I attended before landing a job at the National Research Council Institute for Marine Biosciences (it's a mouthful, but fun to say to family and friends to make your job sounds swanky) for my first work term.
NRC-IMB was a great first work term experience. My first task was planning all the ins and outs of Discovery Day. Quick blurb on DDay: more kids than you can handle come through the Institute for the day to check out booths the scientists have set-up – my favorite, liquid nitrogen ice cream. Discovery Day followed written articles and cleaning up the intranet database (eeek! it was a mess). So for my second work term placement I was looking for more to sink my teeth into.
I believe my "grit and bear" personality with the first round of interviews paid off for my second placement – first interview, JOB OFFER! I was ecstatic, so much that when the Co-op Office called to announce the position to me as Marketing and Communications Specialist at the Greater Halifax Partnership, I told them I'd have to think about it and call them back. That lasted for about one minute and I called them back telling them of course I'd take the job. I had had a great interview with one of the Vice-President of Marketing and Communications (the Director and Specialist for Marr/Comm were both out for my interview time!) and the view was phenomenal on the 21st floor of Purdy’s Tower II.
And I haven't looked back since at the GHP. Every day is a different bag of marbles, except for my morning routine of coming in and gathering the papers for daily media monitoring (Trudie Richard's class does pay off! And media monitoring isn’t that bad, I now actually know what is going on in the world). Other than that my routine can veer just about anywhere in the run of a day.
Here's my bag of marbles: I've written letters to be sent out from our President and CEO and even a member of our Board of Directors, I've planned events for our Investor Relations department, I've contributed to changes on our website and to date I have attended two web developing sessions with ISL with information that I can take through my PR career, and currently I am providing an extra set of hands for our big event, Building our Future and gathering material for our Year in Review all of while catching a glimpse out my window to overlook the cargo ships and metro ferries passing by effortlessly in the harbour.
Ok, so I guess I'll go first :)
ReplyDeleteMy name is Heather Lavers and I am in my 3rd year of PR.
My 1st co-op was with the Calgary Board of Education and this was a wonderful experience! This is a great team of professionals who treated me like family and like a contributing member of the team. Barb Kuester is an amazing mentor and was always willing to lend an ear to any questions I had. I gained experience in:
event planning (I planned two groundbreakings, coordinating the planning team and handing most of the logistics)
speech writing (all students get to write speeches for the Lighthouse Awards which are presented at a board meeting each month)
Writing articles for both the internet and intranet (I got to interview, take photo's and pitch story ideas)
Brouchure Design (I designed a brouchure to promote middle schools to parents)
Communications Plan (wrote a comm plan as a team)
I also had the chance to sit in on various planning meetings and I felt like I truely grew as a communications professional.
I am now on my 2nd co-op with the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) Nova Scotia. Here in Halifax this has been an incredible experience so far. I really didn't expect two amazing opportunities back-to-back but that is what happened. This is an incredible group of professional communicators and I feel like a fully integrated member of the communications team.
My experiences so far have been:
Web work (I maintain and update the intranet. Post/archive articles, update staff pages, etc)
article writing (I have written several articles for the NS intranet, as well as,the main ACOA intranet.
event materials (I have written a speech, backgrounder, press release and assisted with events held by other communications officers)
I have also been able to pitch article and intranet ideas, they love inititative and creativity here!
I have also designed a poster, take photos at events and get to attend various learning events that take place in the city for public service employees.
I highly recommend CBE and ACOA NS for other students!
Thanks Heather!
ReplyDeleteHello fellow PR-ers!
ReplyDeleteMy name is Britney Goucher and I am also in my third year at MSVU of PR.
I am now rounding the bend to my last quarter of my second work term placement. But let's start from the beginning.
Anyone experiencing job interview blues-hang in there! I cannot even begin to express how many interviews I attended before landing a job at the National Research Council Institute for Marine Biosciences (it's a mouthful, but fun to say to family and friends to make your job sounds swanky) for my first work term.
NRC-IMB was a great first work term experience. My first task was planning all the ins and outs of Discovery Day. Quick blurb on DDay: more kids than you can handle come through the Institute for the day to check out booths the scientists have set-up – my favorite, liquid nitrogen ice cream. Discovery Day followed written articles and cleaning up the intranet database (eeek! it was a mess). So for my second work term placement I was looking for more to sink my teeth into.
I believe my "grit and bear" personality with the first round of interviews paid off for my second placement – first interview, JOB OFFER! I was ecstatic, so much that when the Co-op Office called to announce the position to me as Marketing and Communications Specialist at the Greater Halifax Partnership, I told them I'd have to think about it and call them back. That lasted for about one minute and I called them back telling them of course I'd take the job. I had had a great interview with one of the Vice-President of Marketing and Communications (the Director and Specialist for Marr/Comm were both out for my interview time!) and the view was phenomenal on the 21st floor of Purdy’s Tower II.
And I haven't looked back since at the GHP. Every day is a different bag of marbles, except for my morning routine of coming in and gathering the papers for daily media monitoring (Trudie Richard's class does pay off! And media monitoring isn’t that bad, I now actually know what is going on in the world). Other than that my routine can veer just about anywhere in the run of a day.
Here's my bag of marbles: I've written letters to be sent out from our President and CEO and even a member of our Board of Directors, I've planned events for our Investor Relations department, I've contributed to changes on our website and to date I have attended two web developing sessions with ISL with information that I can take through my PR career, and currently I am providing an extra set of hands for our big event, Building our Future and gathering material for our Year in Review all of while catching a glimpse out my window to overlook the cargo ships and metro ferries passing by effortlessly in the harbour.
If nothing else my work terms have pushed me even closer to enjoying my degree in Public Relations and reassuring myself that this is the career for me Рnot to mention my aspiration of working in Halifax after graduation. (Warning: clich̩ line ahead) It really is beautiful city when you take the time to smell the flowers.