Learning Reflections Round # 7: Nov. 18 - Dec. 2

As I am on the brink of finishing my internship at the Fox Valley Park District, I can conclude wholeheartedly that this have been one of a kind experience for me - both personally and professionally. 

I have been given the opportunity not only to learn the language of marketing, but to learn it from a great bunch of folks who truly know their craft and who I will forever look up to in my future career in marketing and public relations.

My internship has met my learning goals. I have learned great new things. I have expanded my professional network. The time for me to move on has arrived. But just a week ago, I could not believe that once I am done with this learning adventure I will never get to walk through the door of the Cole Center where my internship took place for 16 long, but sweet weeks, and that I will never see the people I worked with, took my lunch break with and shared bunch of things from food recipes to professional dreams.

But now I am ready to move on and to take my internship learnings to a new level - a job, that is. And who knows - maybe some day I will come back to where I started - to the place where fun begins, as the motto of the Park District states.

And fun I had!

I will never forget the Zombie 5K special event and the fun and togetherness it brought to the community. Witnessing the huge amount of time and energy that went behind the scenes of this event's organization has been a priceless lesson for me of how work needs to be done. The marketing department has shown a remarkable professionalism and commitment to the community, boundless flexibility and willingness to improve its costumer services and marketing efforts on any given day with so little notice at times, but with a big determination to make it on time, to meet the deadline, to deliver to the community.

And the community has reflected its appreciation of the Park District services and programs through the thousands of surveys I have been updating Survey Monkey with for the last few months. Sure, there were some complains that the water in one of the pools in the Vaughan aquatics center has been a little chilly lately, but overall the surveys I went through have been full of appreciation and encouragement of the Park District.

With the Winter Activity Guide now finished, posted on the website, shared on Facebook and mailed to this same community, we have now started working on the Spring Activity Guide. It is a never ending process of writing, editing and proofreading of activity guides, brochures and social media content around here! 

In addition to Survey Monkey, I had the opportunity to expand my knowledge of creating slideshow videos, to improve my writing skills using the Associated Press Style, to become an expert on Flickr and to hone my editing and proofreading abilities. Not to mention expanding my professional network and learning to speak the language of marketing and public relations. What more a marketing intern can ask for?

As for me - I am extremely happy and proud that for 16 weeks I have been a part of the marketing department of this great organization, and that I have helped as well.
I will forever treasure my experience as a marketing intern at the Fox Valley Park District, and I know that the great memories I have created here will last me for a lifetime.

And to make sure of this I asked one of the staff members to take a few pictures of me in the lobby of the Cole Center in Aurora where my internship took place.

Isn't this fire place just gorgeous? Seriously considering to personalize  one of this pictures into my Christmas card for this year. Just kidding!

Learning Reflections Round # 6: Nov. 4 - Nov. 17

The goal of every internship is to benefit one's professional experience and future career plans. Did I accomplish this? You bet! When I started my internship, I came to the Fox Valley Park District with almost zero knowledge about marketing. But almost immediately I started learning new things, and today as I am writing another reflection of what I have learned during the last couple weeks, I realize that week after week I have been given excellent communication tools to further develop my skills as a marketing professional.

But going through my notes of what I have been working on during my internship, I can't help but feel proud that I, too, have helped and contributed to the marketing department of the Park District. Here is the breakdown of my learning experience for the last couple of weeks:

Winter Guide
Finishing the Winter Guide has been priority number one for the marketing folks at the Park District.

Once classes, programs and special events for the Winter Guide has been sorted out and updated with basic information (age, cost, location, etc.), description and graphic design, it comes to the laboring tasks of editing and proofreading the whole thing.
I took part in this process too, and I am sharing the electronic version of the Winter Guide here. 

Looks awesome, right?

Now, with the Winter Guide being finished, we already started working on the Spring Guide - this should give you an idea of how much time and effort goes into the creation of the Park District guides.

E-mail Marketing
I also created my first official E-blast for the Prisco Community Center about these Candy Science Classes. Proud of how it turned out as I have never had an experience with e-mail marketing before.

Volunteer Manual
Another project I worked on was updating the Volunteer Manual. Did you know that the Park District gets tons of help from volunteers? People give back to the community by offering their time and skills as special events and program volunteers, but there are rules and policies for them to follow, so this explains the importance of updating the Volunteer Manual regularly.

Special Events Update
I am finally finished with updating the calendars of Oaklee's Family Guide, TribLocal and Daily Herald with information about the Park District's upcoming special events for the months of October, November, December, January and February. I am in awe that nowadays anyone can go the website of similar online publications and post information (even articles) about their own events for absolutely no cost. A perfect example of citizen journalism.
I have also posted Information about the special events on the FVPD website. 

Meeting the New Intern
I was not surprised when I learned that another Aurora University student will be the new intern for the Spring Semester of 2014. I met her yesterday, and I truly wish her the great experience that I am having right now in the marketing department of the Park District. She will have a blast!

Research
I love research! Besides being a marketing intern, I also work at a local public library. According to author Neil Gaiman, Google can bring you back 100,000 answers, a librarian can bring you back the right one. So here are some websites I came across while surfing the web that might be helpful to you if you are a communications major or if you are looking for a communication internship.


http://www.mastersincommunication.com/

http://communications.jobs.net/jobs/illinois.aspx

http://internships.jobs.net/jobs/illinois.aspx

Just sharing some photos I took during my internship:

At the RiverEdge Park in Aurora during the Roots of Aurora event

Graphic designer Erika Swanson drawing Parker - the FVPD mascot

Aurora family stops by the marketing table of the FVPD during a special event

Learning Reflections Round # 5: Oct. 21 - Nov. 3

The last few days here at the Fox Valley Park District flew by faster than the speed of sound. I am not exaggerating when I say this, because so much has been happening around here - special events, video marketing, working on the Winter Activity Guide and so on.

What have I learned during the last couple of weeks?

Video slideshows as a marketing tool
With the evolution of the Internet, the need of graphics, photos and videos is bigger than ever as people often rely on getting the information they need from the organization's website or the social media channels.

Videos are one of the smartest marketing tools out there, according to Agent-EZ-Site. Post a video on Facebook and watch it spread like a fire. From "like' to "like" and from "share" to "share" - you will have tons of people viewing it and then, hopefully, attending the event you are promoting. 

Animoto video maker has been my best friend for the last few days here at the Fox Valley Park District. 

The marketing coordinator for the Fox Valley Park District - Cathy Cronin Schwieger (who also happens to be a children's author) taught me how to create videos using the Animoto software. Since then I have been obsessed with it. I helped Cathy with creating the last two videos, but the video about the fitness centers is entirely my production.










Cool, right?

I also learned that creating a video slideshow is not about patching a few pictures together. It is about telling a story with your video. And this is probably one of the most important marketing lessons that I have learned during my internship - to be creative and interactive, but to also connect with people and to allow room for two-way communication.

Meeting the Publics
Not long ago, during my Public Relations class, the importance of narrowing your marketing efforts toward your publics (also known as your audience) was pointed out over and over and over again. As a marketing intern, I have had the opportunity to meet the Park District's publics more than once at various special events and celebrations. I have also witnessed from a first hand that the Park District takes its audience very seriously. Every email, social media comment or face-to-face encounter with the public is watched carefully with this goal in mind - providing the best possible costumer service.

A great example of how to appreciate the costumers was the week of Oct. 21 to Oct. 27, which was dedicated to the 20th anniversary celebration of Eola Community Center. People were treated with free activities, special offers and giveaways.

Recently, a new playground was built at Eola Community Center, and the Park District celebrated the completion of the playground on Wednesday, Oct. 23. The whole marketing department was there to interact with the community. The celebration included free crafts, refreshments and giveaways. 

From my photos, you can see how the new playground looks now:

The guests feasted on delicious apples.

The marketing department took the opportunity to promote the upcoming special events and programs.

This is me with Parker- the Fox Valley Park District mascot.

For more pictures of the Eola Park Playground Dedication event, visit the Flickr account of the Fox Valley Park District.

Learning Reflections Round # 4: Oct. 6 - Oct. 20

It is hard to believe, but the Fall Semester at Aurora University is almost over. Yay for me as I am graduating in December! Many of my fellow classmates, however, are on the lookout for internships.

Did you know that nowadays finding an internship is almost as difficult as finding a job? Especially unpaid, for-credit internship?

I was surprised to learn that one of my classmates applied for internships at three different companies. One company declined her application, and the other two never responded.

According to Simon Pullin of milkround.com, a website specializing in opportunities for school grads and job seekers, there are at least 100 applicants per internship for the hottest job fields – IT, marketing and business. Read more about the fierce competition for lending the right internship in this article.

And if you are an Aurora University student from the Adult Degree Completion Program, and if you are on the brink of pulling your hair out as a result of your fruitless attempts to find the right for-credit internship, please don’t give up! The counselors from the Career Center will give you great tips on how to find the internship that is right for your professional growth. They will also advise you on how to manage the insanity of balancing job, family and internship, but don’t expect miracles. You will (many times) struggle to keep it together, and you will count the days until graduation comes and saves you from all the learning experiences associated with being a college student.

With this being said, now that I am half-way through my internship at the Fox Valley Park District, people ask me all the time if it is worth completing an internship instead of just taking a class. Without a doubt – yes.

For those of you who have asked me how I have found my internship – I am hoping that this post will help you a little bit when it is time for you to begin the hunt for the right internship.

I remember how it all started. Several months ago, Dr. Toby Arquette and I were discussing potential ideas for my senior capstone project. I wanted to work on a PR related project. He suggested that a not-for-profit organization would be the best fit for my ideas. As I was sitting in Dr. Arquette’s office, I knew right the way which organization I wanted go with – you guessed it right – the  Fox Valley Park District. It was a no brainer – I had a great personal experience with various of their programs. And for two years my son attended preschool at the Eola Community Center. Two happy years, during which my little boy learned his colors, his ABCs and his numbers – while I was sitting comfortably  in the lobby – waiting for him, browsing through all the fliers, brochures and activity guides of the FVPD – with absolutely no idea that some day I will be working on those activity guides as a marketing intern.

But let’s go back to my senior capstone project. I met with Jeff Long, public relations manager at the FVPD, shared my ideas for my assignment with him, and had the chance to meet some of the people from the marketing department. I was impressed by their friendliness and professionalism. When it was time for me to search for an internship, I decided to ask Jeff if it would be acceptable to complete my internship at the FVPD. With the approval of Human Resources Department, he said yes.

As the saying goes, the rest is history.

And now, Dr. Arquette, after addressing my classmates, I will go into details of what I have learned during the last two weeks as an intern, as I know that this is what interests you the most.

Since I am half-way through my internship, I decided to go back to my original learning objectives and to cross out the ones that I have already accomplished. This will help me to concentrate on the goals that I still need to work on during the next few weeks.

Accomplished Learning Objectives

• Improve my communication interpersonal skills - During my internship I am in constant communication (face-to-face, emails) with superiors, staff members and costumers of the FVPD. I am striving to interact with them in a positive and productive manner. I am also learning the language used in public relations/marketing, and I am completing assignments by the requested deadline.

• Expand my professional network - I am creating new professional contacts by working on group projects, such as the Winter Activity Guide. I have also had the opportunity to participate in the special event Zombie Invasion 5K, during which I helped with bag checking and with giving information to people to make sure that the event runs smoothly and that everybody has a scary good time.

• Expand my social media experience  - During the last few weeks, I have been updating the Flickr account of the FVPD. Almost 10, 000 photos grouped into 46 sets are in there right now! Not bad for starting from only 75 photos. And when I see that some sets have received more than 700 views, I know that my work had made an impact and that I have contributed to the marketing department of the FVPD. Facebook is on the agenda for the next few weeks.

• Improve my research skills  - I have researched the social media channels used by the FVPD competitors, such as the Bolingbrook Park District and the Naperville Park District in order to see what I can learn from them and to implement it in my future internship's efforts.

• Spreading the word about the FVPD special events  - I updated the event calendars of Oaklee's Family Guide, TribLocal and Daily Herald with information about the upcoming special events for the months of October, November, December, January and February.

Learning Reflections Round # 3: Sept. 23 - Oct. 6

Today marks the beginning of a new month -  October -  which means that I have been a member of the marketing team at the park district for exactly 36 days (yes, I've counted them).

When I started, it was still summer, but as I am writing this, I can see that the trees outside my window have turned into a gorgeous row of orange, yellow and brown. Autumn has come.

The arrival of fall has changed the atmosphere here at the park district as well. No more concerts in the park, bug fests, ice cream socials and splash bashes. Instead, it is time for pumpkin weekends, Halloween family nights, haunted houses and of course – for zombies. Tons of information about the upcoming special events can be found on the Fox Valley Park District website.

But let’s go back to the subject of zombies. The Zombie Invasion 5K that took place on Sept. 21 turned out to be one very successful event. After the race, people took pictures with the zombies, listened to music, had food and warmed up by the bonfire. How do I know all of this? I was there.

Have a look at the photos from the event on the Fox Valley Park District’s Flickr account!

And here is the latest update of my learning adventures at the Fox Valley Park District:

Winter Activity Guide Updates

Even though fall has just approached, this week we officially started working on updating the winter activity guide with information about the upcoming events, classes and services. The information that ends up in the activity guides must be absolutely correct. Many people pitch in with the creation of the activity guides, and lots of editing and proof reading takes place.

More information about the importance of the activity guides and the work that goes into their creation and updates will follow as I am sure I will have more learning curves to report about in the next few weeks.

Press Release

Another first for me was writing a press release for an upcoming event: Dinner Theatre with songs performed by the musical group TRiO.

Jeff Long, public relations manager for the Fox Valley Park District, edited the press release and prepared it for publishing. That day I had a class Writing for Communication and I decided to show both versions to my classmates. It made for a good discussion during the class break as we were just learning how to write a press release.

Zombie Invasion 5K

There is so much to be done before a major special event, such as the above mentioned Zombie Invasion 5K. Social media promotion, press releases, not to mention the huge amount of time that goes into planning and organizing of the event. Volunteers are extremely helpful when it comes to the park district's special events. They are always willing to lend a hand, but they need to know what to do. 

Last week I spend few hours helping Anna Kish (Community Athletic Liaison at Fox Valley Park District) with proof reading, printing and laminating the instructions she wrote for the many volunteers who helped out during the Zombie Invasion 5K. Here is a snap shot of just a few:

And here is the fun part: I volunteered to be the bag check person for the event, which gave me the opportunity to communicate with people directly and to learn about their expectations of the race and of the event as a whole. Bag checking was offered for a very first time during this year’s Zombie Invasion 5K for a small fee. Once again, listening to people’s opinion has proved to be priceless for the purpose of improving the park district’s services. I know that for next year, some changes will be implemented in order to provide people with a better service.

The photo below captures a moment I will treasure forever. This is me with Dawn Hartman (Senior Marketing & Communications Manager at FVPD) and Cathy Schwieger (Marketing Coordinator at FVPD).

Learning Reflections Round # 2: Sept. 9 - Sept. 22

Overall, this last few days have been very productive for me as an intern. In addition, I am getting more comfortable with the marketing staff members, which is not difficult to accomplish since everyone is super helpful and enthusiastic that I will be spending the next few weeks there. I am pleased that I get to learn and to have fun at the same time, which makes it for a great internship experience. 

Regarding my learning objectives: I had the opportunity to work on the Flickr account of the park district, and to promote the upcoming events and programs during an event organized by the city of Aurora. And here comes the detailed explanations of my learning adventures for the last couple of weeks:       

Social media communication

image is from greenangelenergy.ca

One of my internship's learning objectives is to widen my social media experience. Most of us are familiar with Facebook and Twitter, so when my internship supervisor, Jeff Long, public relations manager at the park district, gave me the fun task to update the Flickr account, I was excited.
                                                                                                                                                This last few days, I had the opportunity to view the beautiful photos capturing the park district's special events and to upload them for the viewing pleasure of the people who browse the website for information. 

And boy, the number of those who rely on the website for learning what is going on at the park district, is really high: the website, containing more than 1,700 pages, receives no less than 50,000 hits per month.

Needles to say, I am so proud to be contributing to the marketing department by updating their Flickr account!
There are close to 5,000 photos in there right now. Not bad for starting from only 75. And with all those fun programs and special events scheduled for the next few weeks, I am sure I will have plenty of photos to choose from and to add to the website.

And the photos are gorgeous! Take a look of them by visiting the website and clicking on the Flickr icon! 

Expanding my social media knowledge - mission accomplished!


Promoting the FVPD programs and events directly to the public
What a fun activity this turned to be!
With my partner in crime, Marisela Soto, who is also an Aurora University student and an employee of the park district, I had the responsibility to set a marketing table with flyers, brochures, pencils, bracelets and other fun stuff to promote the current programs of the park district during the Roots Aurora event that happened on Sept. 7 at the new RiverEdge Park in Aurora.

Promoting the park district's services and programs during this event covered another of my learning objectives: marketing via public appearance. Being able to talk to people and to directly answer their question about future events proved to be an effective marketing tool. People's opinion counts; you bring awareness about the organization you are involved with, and if there are any negative remarks- you take a note and improve your services.

And here is the little video I took that demonstrates what we do during such events. The music you will hear is from a local Indian artist:

Next time, I will bring a better camera to shoot similar events, since the quality of my phone's camera, obviously, is not that great, but at least I learned how to upload videos on my YouTube account and then to share them on Blogger. Another step toward being more comfortable with online marketing and social media.

In addition, I took several photos during the Root Aurora event that visually summarize my work as a marketing intern:

The marketing table is all set, and I am ready to welcome the people and to introduce them to the newest services of the park district

Stocking up on bracelets with the Fox Valley Park District's logo

I am wearing my black-and-green shirt promoting the Sept. 21 Zombie Event that is full of fun promises

This is Marisela explaining how fun it is to be a Fox Valley Park District member

A local artist poses by our table

This young gentleman signs to receive information about the programs via email

Learning Reflection Round # 1: Aug. 26 - Sept. 8

The importance of team work

My first week at the Fox Valley Park District came slow (I could not wait to start!) and went fast as I had the chance to witness from a firsthand the dynamic atmosphere at the busy marketing department. I learned that everyone there contributes to the success of the park district’s activities and programs in one way or another. The print guide, the brochures, the social media efforts – all is carefully created, examined and edited from at least two people with the idea to prevent crisis communication. And when this happens, it is all about team work again: everyone pitches in to offer ideas for future improvement.

Constant Contact as a form of Email Marketing

The Fox Valley Park District uses Constant Contact for email marketing. According to people’s interest staff members email all sorts of information to the appropriate contact list.

I had the opportunity to explore this email boosting software and as I am getting more comfortable with using it, I am sure that my experience with Constant Contact will benefit me in my professional future.

Surveys as a form of research
The FVPD uses surveymonkey.com to analyze its audience, or simply put, to learn what people think about the programs, services, and facilities.

For me, it was interesting to explore  and to learn about the different surveys the park district offers to the public. The opinion of the public matters, and the park district is on the right track to rely on the answers provided by the community.

Many times, people will write passionate comments and- understandably- will leave their names out, but after seeing these comments from a first hand, I completely agree with Fraser P. Seitel who writes in The Practice of Public Relations that "Every public relations program or solution should begin with research. Most don't, which is a shame".

The FVPD- without a doubt- takes its public seriously, and by surveying it provides an opportunity for two-way communication.

Special Events and more
Every month, the park district offers an enormous amount of interactive programs, but the ones that costumers prefer the most, are the special events. By surfing the web page, people can find detailed information on what is going on at all of the park district’s locations and facilities. It is essential then for staff members to constantly update the calendar with the needed information – description of the event, fee, and age of participants.

My first independent task as an intern was updating the website’s calendar with information about the upcoming special events for the months of September and October. By doing this, I learned about the diverse events offered by the park district, and even made arrangements with friends to anticipate in the Fall Harvest.

In addition, I had the opportunity to surf the park district's website from the inside out instead of the other way around as a costumer.