By: Emily Smith

WEEK 1: MY FIRST WEEK AS AN INTERN AT KERN

My first week in my creative internship role at KERN was an overwhelming yet exciting start to what I think will be an experience I will learn about copywriting and the creative process . I learned why communication in a remote position is so important and the importance of asking questions.

ONBOARDING AND BOARDING PASSES

It was the tail end of a trip to Denver and also my first few days as an intern at KERN, an advertising agency based out of Los Angeles.

Monday I woke up to the echoing alarm at 8:00 a.m. on my last day in Denver and the first day of my internship. I reluctantly rolled out of bed, got ready and hopped on the orientation teams meeting. The next morning was the same, except my alarm sounded at 3:40 a.m. and I had a plane to catch. “Now boarding, flight F9 to Albany,” long, stressful TSA security lines before a Pacific Time Teams meeting, early morning miscommunications—all in my first week at KERN. 

I finally got to the front of the boarding line, and thought, “Am I going to make it back to New York in time for my first meeting of the day with my new manager Denise?”

I walked in my door 5 minutes before my meeting was supposed to start. When I told Denise that I had just gotten home moments ago she said I should have communicated my travel dilemma with her beforehand so I could have been better prepared and in a good mindset for the meeting. 

In a remote environment, your manager doesn’t know your exact schedule for the day, so it’s important to communicate what your day looks like. Managers are there to be an advocate for you and to help you make the most out of your time there. Letting them know if your workload is too much or if you need extra time to prepare before a meeting helps not only you, but them too. 

A QUESTION A DAY KEEPS THE CONFUSION AWAY

In my second meeting on Tuesday, I found myself having trouble staying focused. I had so many questions like what PDIS meant and why it mattered to me. It wasn’t until the next day I asked Denise what it meant and found out it stood for Pre-DISconnect. That’s when someone is about to leave a service and the company is trying to win them back through emails or postcards with offers. 

At KERN, they set up a mentor buddy every week for interns. For week 1, Charlotte was my buddy. It was Thursday, and my only job was to focus on asking questions. How did she handle criticism and not take it personally, but rather constructively? Does that come with time, or was it a mindset? She said that it’s both! At the end of the day the feedback is what will get you the best product for the brand. This answer led to more questions, which had more answers. 

I learned about touches, brand voice and why they were important to me. By asking Charlotte questions, I gained confidence. No question is stupid if you learn something from it. 

TAKEAWAYS: FIRST WEEK, FIRST INTERNSHIP

My first week as an intern at KERN was a great start to the next few months. I learned that it’s not only okay to ask questions, but it’s important. The more questions you ask, the more opportunities you have to learn. Your managers and coworkers want to help you because they want to see you succeed. 

I also learned how important communication in a remote position is. When you let your others know your situation, they’ll be understanding and help. That could mean pushing back a meeting so you can prepare, or not giving you as many tasks so you don’t become overwhelmed. Be an advocate for yourself so your managers can be an advocate for you. 

By: Emily Smith

WEEK 2: MY SECOND WEEK AS AN INTERN AT KERN

It’s easy to stay in my comfort zone, but growth happens by being in an UNcomfort zone. It’s week 2 and I’m starting to get the hang of this intern thing. Sort of…  

STRENGTHS…AND WEAKNESSES

I love taking quizzes about my personality and the way I perceive the world. For example, I’m an ENFJ on the Myers Briggs test, which means I’m Extraverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Judging. I’d never heard of Clifton Strengths though, and was interested to see what my top 5 strengths were. 

Clifton Strengths is an online assessment where you answer questions on a scale between 2 options. You pick the option most aligned with you and at the end it tells you your top strengths and places you have the most potential to grow. 

My top 5 strengths were Context, Restorative, Futuristic, Empathy and Input. The strength that really threw me off was restorative. In the description it mentions that I feel more optimistic than most when conquering shortcomings. Although I found most of it to be true, taking on challenges sometimes can feel overwhelming for me. 

All in all, when working with others, by applying and growing these strengths I can become a better teammate and collaborator. 

TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK

It was 5 minutes before our first meeting for the group intern project. I clicked the join teams meeting button while gulping down some water. I anxiously wondered who the other interns were and thought “Are we going to work well together?”

It was a bit awkward at first, but the introductions started and we settled into our first group meeting. Some of the other interns already had careers and are going back to school to learn different skills. Others, like myself, are in our final year of college. We all wanted to learn, collaborate and create a summer intern project that we could be proud of.

We opened the client input brief and discussed what we could. We realized very early on that we didn’t know anything about how to tackle this project and decided to get some back up. Talking to our managers was the next step. We needed to get a better picture of our individual roles and how to collaborate more efficiently. 

While we didn’t accomplish much in our first meeting, getting to know everyones backgrounds was eye opening. We’re going to be a team for the next month and figuring out where and how we fit together will be important in the process.

GETTING TO KNOW YOU

Every week, KERN has set up a few meetings for me with people in different departments so I can meet and learn from as many different personalities as possible. This week I met with Claire Kasaian: Marketing Associate, and Spencer Rose: Senior Vice President of Human Resources. 

I met with Claire and talked about backgrounds, and interests. I told her about my interest in social media marketing and she introduced me to a content calendar. It’s a schedule for all the upcoming postings for a brand. I was able to learn a lot about her work on the social team and will be working with her on social posts in the future.

My meeting with Spencer was added to my calendar last minute, so I was at a loss for time to come up with questions. I ended up asking about the future of remote working at KERN. After graduation next year, I’m not sure where I’ll be living, so remote work is something I’m very interested in. 

The answer…remote work was most likely not going anywhere, and it would be pretty difficult to go fully in person with the amount of new hires at KERN in various places across the country. He congratulated me on asking a good question, and after asking that more questions were able to form. 

TAKEAWAYS: WEEK 2

My second week at KERN was all about learning about new people and learning more about myself. Through taking the Clifton Strengths test, I was able to learn what strengths I can grow to become a better teammate and coworker. 

I had the chance to take a deep dive into the backgrounds and interesting fun facts of my coworkers. Learning what makes everyone tick and what they’re most interested in so I can better collaborate and contribute. In the group intern project or other meetings, I now know how to communicate better with my peers.

By: Emily Smith

WEEK 3: MY THIRD WEEK AS AN INTERN AT KERN

Just when I thought I was getting the hang of things, the work had just begun. If I could survive this week, I can survive most (I hope).

DRAFTS AND REVISIONS 

It was the kickoff for my first project at KERN, writing for the internal Father’s Day email. “Oh my God, do I have to write this on my own?” My writing skills were finally being tested in the real world, could I do it?

I met with Harvey, a senior copywriter, to discuss potential starts to the project.After doing some research, we both came up with our own drafts so at internal review they would have more options. 

The next day my copy was edited and torn apart, which I knew was going to happen but somehow it still surprised me. We had three different meetings that day just to revise the work I was doing, editing it down to the bare minimum. 

The next day was our internal review. Would my work be good enough? As they reviewed both options, I lost focus and twiddled my thumbs. “Let’s go with the first one,” someone said. I looked up and realized that they had chosen my copy, with a few tweaks and revisions of course. 

I was so excited, after I exited the meeting I went to tell my parents what had just happened. Although the revisions and edits were grueling and made me feel like I failed, they just made the work better. Without making those changes, I wouldn’t have learned the process for what it truly is. 

RIGHT ON TRACK

As I was taking on new projects, I also had to focus on our work for the group intern project. Unlike our last meeting, we had a few of the different intern’s managers there throughout the meeting to explain the process of a project and show us their past work on the same client. 

Our group meeting, although very informative and helpful, didn’t allow us the time to brainstorm what we needed to focus on, figuring out our objective. We set up another meeting, just interns to really put our heads together and collaborate.

We got off on the right foot and came up with an objective for our campaign and discussed what data we were going to need to create a creative brief. That was the day we officially kicked off our group intern project.

In just a week we were able to find our footing. When we asked for help, we were able to understand the material given to us more clearly and it allowed us to begin working with a goal in mind. 

NICE TO MEET YA

KERN sets up a mentor for me every week so I can ask questions in order to really get an understanding of the company and work as a copywriter. This week I learned a lot about creating a work life balance from my mentor, Deborah Williams.

“How do you manage to have a work life balance?”  Deborah had done a lot of freelance work and more recently started at KERN, her wide variety of job experience made her the perfect person to ask.

She told me that it’s all about being able to put the work down at the end of the day and realizing that you don’t live to work, you work to live. When she worked in freelance it wasn’t as easy to do that, but since she’s started at KERN it’s much easier to set down the computer at the end of the day. 

It was a great realization to have, although I already knew that work shouldn’t engulf your life I definitely have let it at some times. Creating a work life balance starts when I’m young so I don’t end up burnt out later in my career.

TAKEAWAYS: WEEK 3 

 My third week at KERN was about giving 110% and learning what being a copywriter looks like. Throughout the Father’s Day project I learned not to take edits personally because they just make you and your work look better. 

Talking to Deborah made me realize that the work I’m doing now is really the start of my career and that creating a work life balance early on makes it so you don’t have to start from scratch in the future.

By: Emily Smith

WEEK 4: MY FOURTH WEEK AS AN INTERN AT KERN

It’s the one month anniversary of working as a copywriting intern at KERN and I continue to learn the tips and tricks of this field everyday.

DOIN’ IT FOR THE ‘GRAM

Prepped and ready for my fourth week, I looked at my schedule, something I do every morning so I have a good understanding of what’s to come that week. “Review Juneteenth?” I don’t remember that meeting scheduled on Friday.

In my first meeting of the day with my manager, Denise, she explained I was put to the task of creating the Juneteenth social post for KERN’s instagram. Working in social media was something I had always wanted to do, would I like it?

First I met with the Art Director I’d be working with, Casey Fang. We went over some ideas for the design and she gave me input on what words really popped to her. After coming up with a few different options, I presented to her and Denise for input. After a little tweaking, Casey took my words and put them into her designs. 

On Juneteenth I saw the post and was so excited, I shared it on my instagram, too! Having the opportunity to see the work I did come to life, and knowing my coworkers and managers saw it too gave me an overwhelming sense of joy. It turned out what I’ve wanted to pursue a career in for years was exactly what I liked.

LUNCH AND LEARN

In order for us interns to learn about every department and their responsibilities, KERN has set up 1-2 meetings a week correctly titled “Lunch and Learns.” The departments present individually so we can see what they do in their day to day and their role in teamwork. 

This week we got to learn about two different departments: Client Services and Strategy. Client Services focuses on fostering relationships with KERN’s clients and teams, while Strategy focuses more on creating creative strategies for the most effective execution of a client’s campaign.

Something that surprised me was how interesting I found Strategy to be. I realized that I had done a lot of the same work the strategy department does when I was running a COVID safe dating campaign in college. A lot of planning, collaborating while also running the instagram to make our campaign more visible.

Learning about the different departments at KERN has allowed me to see that in my field of study there are more options that may fit my path and others that don’t. Seeing how they work together is what I find the most interesting and know it’ll help us interns in our group intern project.

TIPS AND TRICKS

Every week, KERN has set up a mentor for me with people in the Creative Department (just like me) so I can learn from as many different personalities as possible. This week I was paired up with Ryan Tavlin, who gave me a variety of tips for a career in copywriting.

A question I like to ask every one of my buddies is “How do you start your creative process?” Ryan told me to always start any project by asking myself 3 questions: What am I trying to sell, Who am I selling it to and Why do they want to buy it?

The rest of the week whenever I would see a commercial that sparked my interest, I’d ask myself those same questions in regards to the ad on my screen. He said it was good practice to do this, because recognizing other companies’ thinking can help me get a clearer image of the mindset I should be in when coming up with my ideas. 

TAKEAWAYS: WEEK 4

This week marked one month working at KERN, and I’m learning more now than when I started. Creating my first social media post will definitely be a highlight of this internship. 

Learning took precedence this week in both lunch and learn meetings and my mentor meeting with Ryan. Understanding how each department runs as well as how to become a better creator helped me understand how to be a better collaborator and creative.

By: Emily Smith

WEEK 5: MY FIFTH WEEK AS AN INTERN AT KERN

This was a week filled with a lot of challenges – wi-fi-less work and long meetings –

but somehow I overcame those struggles.

NO WI-FI, BIG PROBLEM

Working remote, while it has its advantages, also has its drawbacks. “I can’t hear you, you’re on mute,” “Everyone turn your cameras on,” and “Can you see my screen?” are common phrases you’ll hear everyday. You get so used to the routine of hopping on a call, that you don’t think of the possibility of what could go wrong. 

At the beginning of week 5, my Wi-fi went out and I was definitely not prepared. Hours were spent on the phone with Spectrum asking “When will the outage end?” Instead of starting the work I had due the next day, I decided to wait, a big mistake. 

When I woke up Tuesday morning, the Wi-fi was still out and I had a deadline to make. Instead of doing the work due on paper, I was on phone calls with my dad, trying to make a personal hotspot work on my computer and traveling around my hometown looking for an ounce of service.

When I found service at a friend’s house, I missed my deadline. That day I learned the lesson of communication again and accountability. If I had started the work and searched for Wi-fi later, I would’ve had something to show for my time and although communication was rather impossible, now I have my manager’s phone number so a situation like that never happens again. 

WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Although we have already endured an orientation and continue to attend “Lunch and Learns,” meetings designed specifically for us interns to understand each department, we also had to attend “Welcome to the Neighborhood.” Two 3 hour meetings for new hires to hear from each department and how KERN functions as a team.

I admittedly was not looking forward to these. One hour meetings are already brutal, but 3 hours? Ughhh. “How am I going to stay focused through these meetings?” 

Once the first meeting started, I had an idea to take notes, on the key details that I found interesting about each department. Surprisingly, it kept me focused and actively listening to what each person had to say. 

I continued to take notes for both sessions and they weren’t as unbearable as I thought they would be. By taking notes, I was able to stay focused and learn more than I would have if I just had the meeting and ate lunch (although I did that as well) :).

SIGHTS SET

Usually KERN has a mentor set up for me every week so I can hear about copywriting from new points of view. But this week, it was just my manager Denise and I. Every past meeting we’ve discussed the group intern project, but this was her time to teach me about clear copywriting.

She told me about the 3 keys to copywriting, which included connecting to your audience’s humanity and emotions and also using data like “How many people are actually taking action to buy the product you’re selling?” 

My favorite lesson I learned that day was in the different types of copywriting. Before this internship, I didn’t even know copywriting was a career, let alone that there were types of it. Writing for TV, Print Ads, Social Media and more. 

TAKEAWAYS: WEEK 5

This week I had to overcome a lot of challenges. My Wi-fi outage situation was a real problem I didn’t think would come up during my remote internship. Working through that was hopefully the biggest challenge I’ll overcome this internship, alongside battling boredom.

While the Welcome to the Neighborhood meetings seemed like they were going to be way too long for me to handle, I learned some new ways on how to stay focused and stick through it.

By: Emily Smith

WEEK 6: MY SIXTH WEEK AS AN INTERN AT KERN

This week was a crazy busy one filled with blog writing and so many meetings. Though it proved to be time consuming and stressful, the feeling of finally completing the blogs this week was like a runners high.

2 BLOGS, 1 WEEK

This week I was tasked with writing 2 blogs (numbers 4 and 5), both due friday. The process of writing these blogs usually takes me about a week in time each, would I be able to meet the end of week deadline for both?

I started by creating outlines for both of them on Monday and then quickly came up with a draft the morning of Tuesday before meeting with JP, the manager who overlooks this project. I’ve found while it’s not always the best idea to leave things until the last minute, I work best under pressure. 

After going through the blog 4 draft I had to make edits and create another draft for blog 5, all due on Thursday for our next meeting. I made the edits for blog 4 that night, and similar to my strat for the first draft I waited until Thursday morning to finally get to writing. 

While the strategy of working last minute isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, it can really motivate me to get my thoughts down without overthinking what I’ve written. Getting something on the page is what matters, you can always edit it afterwards.

NO DATA, NO PROBLEM

It was our sixth scheduled meeting for the intern group project, I was sure that this was the meeting where I’d finally be able to start concepting copy. Unfortunately my high hopes were wrong. 

The problem we were facing and had been facing for a while was that the data we needed to come up with a creative brief had not been looked for yet. We had to come up with a decision soon: wait for the data to come or create the brief without it and add the data in later. 

We ended up choosing the latter, and now it’s our strategy intern, Alexa, who is in charge of creating a qualitative brief for the creative team to follow until the data finally comes our way. 

In the meantime, I’ve been tasked to play around with different headlines and taglines to help move the process along faster when we do get the brief. 

MENTOR MEETINGS

Every week, KERN sets up a mentor/buddy figure for me to ask all my burning questions about the copywriting and creative field. This week I was paired up with Christina Knueven, an Associative Creative Director. 

One of the first questions I asked her was “How did you begin your career?” She told me that she actually graduated college with a Journalism major, which I was really interested in because of my minor in journalism. 

She told me that her background in journalistic writing gave her the basic writing skills to start in the field of copywriting, while other jobs she got in the field over the years helped her become a better copywriter.

While she ended up working in copywriting, it was experimenting with different types of copywriting that she told me is the most important thing for me to take away when looking into jobs after I graduate. 

TAKEAWAYS: WEEK 6

This week proved to be one of the busiest weeks of my internship (so far). In between writing, I had a lot of meetings scheduled. 

Our intern project, although it feels like our progress is stagnant, is moving along faster than I would have thought possible. My mentor meeting this week and every week was a great refresher in the middle of my week and learning about starting a career in copywriting is always exciting.

By: Emily Smith

WEEK 7: MY SEVENTH WEEK AS AN INTERN AT KERN

The summer days are drifting away. It’s a balancing act between work, travel and my social life. The last rays of summer vacation are starting to set. There’s a massive heatwave blanketing the country right now. Between work and travel can I handle the heat? 

WORKING FROM ANYWHERE

One of the perks of working remotely is that I have the ability to travel and work from wherever I go. This week, I was tasked with balancing work life and my vacation social life. “It couldn’t be that hard… could it?” 

The alarm clock sounded, waking me up in an instant. It was Tuesday, aka the start of the work week. That Monday was the Fourth of July, and waking up the next morning felt impossible. Four day weekends are amazing… until you have to go back to work on a Tuesday.

I rolled out of bed, and stumbled downstairs for breakfast. The next thing I knew, I had an hour to get ready and walk to where I’d be working for the week. The heat on my walk made me feel like I was melting onto the sidewalk. 

When I finally made it into the door and sat down, I was tired but ready to start the day. That day I remember not accomplishing much, and neither did anybody else. The rest of the week however I woke up ready to start my day. I found out four day weekends are worse for work than working on vacation was.

MENTOR TO MANAGER

This week, my manager Denise was out of the office on vacation. It was then decided that Charlotte, my first mentor during my first week at KERN, would be taking over in the role of manager.

It was time for a second round of introductions, this time less painful because we already knew each other. “How have you been,” and “What have you worked on since I last chatted with you,” was definitely in order. 

She assigned me tasks for the week, similar to the ones I had done with Denise but with a twist. “I want you to find the pain, gain and claim of 3 ads from adsoftheworld.” We were going to be tackling neuromarketing, simple enough.

When I presented my findings, Charlotte said “These ads are horrible, but you did a good job trying to find the pain, gain and claim in them.” While I didn’t do the best job picking ads, I learned more about the neuroscience work done here at KERN and how to use it more effectively in my copywriting.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT  

Every week, KERN sets up a mentor/buddy figure for me to ask all my burning questions about the copywriting and creative field. This week I was paired up with George Wolfe, a Senior Copywriter at the agency. 

One of the first questions he asked me was “What are you most interested in working on while you’re here at KERN?” When I told him about my interests in social media, he told me that was a great idea and that he would reach out to other people at the agency for work we could do together.

I was assigned to look up wacky holidays like National Dog Day and National Dessert Day. The task was to find a KERN tie-in to the holidays I found and turn them into an idea for a social post.

I had the most fun doing research and practicing writing copy for something that may or may not come to life, but it was the process of the research I did and practicing that was the real lesson. 

TAKEAWAYS: WEEK 7

This week I had the opportunity to travel and figure out how working was going to play into that. It actually helped me create a better work life balance because when the end of the day came, I was fully in life mode. 

Working with new (and old) faces this week was a super interesting twist to my time here at the agency. I was able to ask more questions to more people than I’ve had the opportunity before.

By: Emily Smith

WEEK 8: MY EIGHTH WEEK AS AN INTERN AT KERN

The wheels have touched down on the runway leading through the last few weeks of my time here at KERN. #1monthleft of the agency life before heading back to school. 

MANAGER SWITCHEROO

I usually wake up to my alarm blaring at 7 a.m., yelling at me to wake up and being met with a wave of exhaustion. But it was Friday, and I instead woke up to the birds chirping knowing it was the end of a hectic week. The weekend was almost here. 

I unlocked my phone and opened my calendar, then the teams app. I had a message from last night after I logged off. “Denise is no longer with the Agency.” I read it a few times over because I was still groggy. What did this mean for me?

My first meeting of the day was with Claudia from HR, and just like I thought she would, she explained the situation. But I still was confused about what was going to happen with me. “Am I going to get another manager?” 

After a few hours of confusion on everyone’s part, being thrown into a multitude of different possible projects and a few hours it was decided that JP, who I had worked on these blogs with, would be taking over as the manager I would be reporting to. I was glad to finally have some direction on a crazy day and was excited to move forward with the rest of my internship.

POSTER TIME

Last week I met with Senior Copywriter, George Wolfe, and did research on wacky holidays for social media. This week that idea was scrapped and working on a poster for BLQ, an employee resource group for black employees and allies in Omnicom agencies. 

The brief said to create a poster for a virtual event about sharing common experiences based on topics like food, travel, family, and music. I’d never written copy for a poster by myself, so George was there to help whenever I had questions. For the most part though, I was on my own.

I started by writing down some ideas for Headlines and body copy, then reviewing and editing those ideas until they were good enough to present in an internal review. In the internal review, we were given feedback and then edited it and sent it back. 

We probably went through about 3 rounds of edits before the final product came to fruition. It was a lot of time and editing, but seeing the final product and knowing I had a major part in making it was worth it. 

Q&A TIME WITH THE PRES

In order for us interns to learn about every department and their responsibilities, KERN has set up 1-2 meetings a week correctly titled “Lunch and Learns.” The departments present individually so we can see what they do in their day to day and their role in teamwork. 

This week we didn’t meet with a department, we got the chance to meet with the president of KERN, Camilla Grozian-Lorentzen, and ask her questions. First she began by talking about the agency and what makes it unique, like its focus on neuroscience. Then it was question time. 

One of my favorite questions that was asked was “How does KERN separate itself from other agencies when it comes to work culture and employees wants.” She told us about the culture being founded on the phrase “Be kind, Be smart, Be creative.”

Something I’ve noticed since the start of my internship is that most of the people who work here take those words seriously and truly live by that phrase — On and off the clock. It’s really nice to work in an environment where people are extremely nice, helpful, and understand that work is just a small part of life.

TAKEAWAYS: WEEK 8

This week there was a lot to overcome, from time zone changes to manager changes it was a #weekforchange. Having the opportunities to lead a project and ask the president of KERN questions was a great experience. For every high this week there was, however, some lows.

Losing my old manager, Denise, was a bit difficult to comprehend at first, leaving me with a lot of questions. But now that the confusion of what was going to happen has (mostly) cleared up, I’m excited to see what the rest of this internship will bring.

By: Emily Smith

WEEK 9: MY NINTH WEEK AS AN INTERN AT KERN

Concepting, creating, and presenting…Oh my! My ninth week at KERN wasn’t in a shortage of those three things. 

INTERN PROJECT: CONCEPTING 

Something I’ve mentioned in a few of my past blogs was the intern project, but I’ve never really explained what it is. It’s a PDIS (post disconnect) campaign for a client of the agency. Unlike work that is presented to the client, ours is spec work, just an idea of what could be presented. 

Over the past few weeks we’ve run into a lot of problems. It started with not being given access to the data we needed to create the creative brief, then the decision to move ahead without it. Making a qualitative brief instead of a quantitative one. 

The creative brief came together and it was up to me and the other creative intern, Rey, to finally start working on the intern project. Weeks of waiting for our turn was finally up. Our first meeting to concept we both came in with good ideas. 

Throughout the week our jobs were to develop those ideas into something presentable for the team at the end of the week. We both got to work, Rey coming up with ideas for the design of the email while I was tasked with thinking about different headlines, subheadlines and body copy for each section of the email. 

When we presented on Friday, the team loved it and we were given the go ahead. This project was just beginning. 

NEW MANAGER

Waking up to the alarm this week was different. Mondays were a day of adjusting back into the weekly schedule of work, but this Monday the alarm sounded at 8 a.m. I had a meeting with my new manager at 11am. 

Though I had met and worked with JP a lot through my internship, I wondered how becoming the manager I reported to would be different. I logged onto the team’s meeting and was immediately met with “Hey Emme.” 

Unlike previous meetings, we came up with some goals I wanted to accomplish by the end of my internship, like creating a portfolio and advice on questions to ask in an informational interview. I decided that the rest of my time at KERN was going to be spent asking every question that popped in my head. 

Once we created a list of the goals, it was time to get my ducks in a row and get to work. At the top of my list was creating a portfolio. Some other smaller goals were going to take up less of my time, so this was a good place to get the ball rolling.

NATIONAL INTERN DAY POST

Coming up with ideas for the national intern day post for KERN was something I had been working on a little bit before being officially put on the project. 

In my meeting with JP on Monday, we brainstormed a few good ones. The one I was most proud of was making each intern have a cringey myspace profile and have them answer prompted questions like it was the early 2000s. I knew the Y2K aesthetic was a big thing with my generation, so it was definitely a fun idea.

Before presenting over 10 ideas to Desmond, I thought “Is my idea good enough?” I had the chance to look at the other ideas being presented and didn’t know if mine that was going to be picked. Turns out it wasn’t, but coming up with good ideas doesn’t mean they’ll get picked.

Something I’ve had to learn over the course of this internship is that even your favorite ideas may not be someone else’s. It’s a part of the creative process. 

TAKEAWAYS: WEEK 9

This week was engulfed with understanding the creative process. The intern project, while moving slowly, is at the beginning of that process. Developing ideas and translating those ideas into words that my audience will understand has been a great challenge. 

Creating a list of goals I want to complete throughout the rest of my internship was really eye opening. It’s something I had thought a bit about but was never asked to put it into words or write it down.