ON THE JOB
COMMUNICATIONS & SOCIAL MEDIA ASSOCIATE
THE GOLDEN EAGLE RESTAURANT
Clarksburg, MA
(September 2024-Current)
DESCRIPTION COMING SOON,
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POST GRADUATE PUBLIC RELATIONS INTERN
SOCIAL WISE COMMUNICATIONS
Lanoka Harbor, NJ - Remote from Home
(September 2024-December 2024)
As a Post Graduate Public Relations Intern working for Social Wise Communications, I supported the account team in managing three clients; a morning television personality, a product-based brand that creates adaptive undergarments aimed at relieving breast discomfort and a children's book author. My daily responsibilities varied as the Social Wise Team worked with me to create an internship experience that encompassed the “Post Graduate Spirit.” After a week of researching the client roster, I was assigned my first two clients; the morning television show host and the product-based brand that created breast-health friendly bras. I began drafting email pitches and building media contact lists for each client. Initially, my drafts underwent thorough review by my supervisors, whose feedback helped me refine my approach and create tailored pitches that represented our clients’ focal points. Over time, I developed a flexible draft template that could be easily edited to address specific media outlets, streamlining the process and eliminating the need for complete rewrites. For instance, I created a baseline “podcast pitch” for each client, which I then personalized to address the individual, or outlet I was contacting. The core of the pitch remained the same in the sense that information related to each client was represented consistently; however, I would often revise the opening and closing paragraphs to better align with the outlet's focus, or reference specific content I had reviewed. Occasionally, I utilized ChatGPT to assist in building media contact lists, or to refine a paragraph I was struggling to word effectively. As they say, “If the tools are available, why not use em’?” My pitching efforts resulted in the successful scheduling of a client to appear on a podcast, of which the episode has yet to be filmed. As soon as the episode is filmed, I will include a link to it below this description.
I also pitched product segments on behalf of the morning television show, which aimed to attract niche organizations who were interested in marketing their products, or services on air. This process began by researching our client’s show in depth, reviewing prior product segments and understanding how the host’s values were being expressed on-air. I also met with CEO Tara Ackaway on numerous occassions to further understand the detailed sponsorship packages our client was offering. As Tara is also the lead booking producer of the show, her insight pertaining to creating a product segment pitch was invaluable. She taught me that the most effective way to reach product-based brands and organizations was to reach out via a social media DM, in which the social media team would more likely than not provide an email to follow up with. After reviewing successful product segment pitches that the Social Wise Team had sent in the past, I drafted my own version of a product segment pitch, which was then edited according to the Team’s feedback. These pitches elaborated on the connection shared between our client and the brand, offering forth the opportunity for a representative of the brand to come on-air and highlight their products and services. The last step in the process was to scout organizations and brands that aligned with the show’s values, themes and target audiences. As I came across brands I perceived to be good candidates for the show, I then revised my draft template to relate to the brand’s products or services directly. I was able to connect with the founders of many brands and organizations, further collaborating with the Social Wise Team to coordinate and finalize segment opportunities. I am still in contact with the Social Wise Communications Team, as there were initiatives I had set into motion before the internship ended. As soon as the segment that I helped to coordinate is filmed, I will include a link to it below this description.
Additionally, I assisted the account team in client meetings, offering forth strategic recommendations and taking notes as necessary. In one particular instance, I realized that one of our clients was scheduled to make an appearance at an event located in close proximity to where I live. After researching the client’s background and initiatives, I found that there was an opportunity to engage children from my community in a way that related directly to the client’s story book. I recommended to the client and the account team that they should take the opporunity to visit a specifc venue, as that venue offered forth the perfect setting for the client to read their story and connect with the natural elements discussed throughout the book. Though my time with Social Wise ended before the account team was able to book the client’s appearance at said venue, a member of the account team adopted the media lists I had created to build off of going forward, leading me to believe that I will see the client in my area in the near future.
Coming from a small town, the opportunity to work with high-profile clients was incredibly exciting and I am deeply appreciative of the experience. I look forward to staying connected with the Social Wise Communications Team and I am proud of the work we did together.
My experience as a Communications Intern working for CM Communication’s hospitality team could theoretically be compared to a Junior Account Coordinator position. One of my primary responsibilities was monitoring media coverage, which involved an expansive search across multiple platforms. I started every day with diving into CM’s reports to track the expected media coverage associated with various hotel and restaurant clients. From there, I would begin to conduct my daily search, starting with accumulating social media coverage and eventually moving into traditional (and digital) media coverage. Cision, Muck Rack and of course good ole’ reliable Google were the main tools I utilized to conduct my daily coverage search, which I then converted into “clips” to share with our clients via Dropbox.
The clipping process, though tedious, was valuable as it familiarized me with what topics and styles of writing that were more likely to appeal to travel and food-based outlets. After grouping together the successful media placements CM had accumulated for each client, I would then take screenshots of each, successful coverage and arrange them in a PDF to be shared with our clients. This process allowed CM to speak to the value of their services as they met with each client. Similarly, I also created media visit sheets to share with our clients to prepare them for incoming influencers who were staying, or eating at their properties. To do so, I worked with the account managment team to accumulate relevant information such as preferences, headshots and contact information to compile it in a document and send off to our clients.
Simultaneously, I worked on building media contact lists that featured influencers, hospitality-based journalists and bloggers alike. The goal with influencers was to identify individuals who met specific follower criteria and created content that revolved around the travel industry (hotel reviews, restaurant reviews, food reviews, martini reviews, etc.). Once I had identified an influencer that I thought may be a good candidate to visit one of our clients, I would record the influencers social media and contact information and let my supervisors know that I found an influencer. As the team shared a Google Excel sheet, everyone had access to the media contact lists I was creating, however, it was expected that the account team was to be alerted if a potential influencer fit came to fruition. On a few occasions, I personally reached out to influencers, expressing CM’s interest in collaborating and inquiring about their rates and pricing. When an influencer, or media representative was confirmed to stay at one of our clients’ properties, I would then be tasked with creating a “media visit sheet,” which was shared with our clients to provide background information on the influencer, or media representative that was visiting them.
Towards the middle of my experience with CM, I voiced that I would like to be more involved in pitching outlets and journalists, as well as participating in social media content creation-based assignments. I was then assigned the responsibility of drafting social media content to display successful media placements on CM’s Instagram page. This included writing the caption, including relevant hashtags and linking images from CM’s Dropbox files. In my final two weeks with CM, the account team gave me an assignment to write three pitches to journalists encouraging them to include our clients in upcoming media. The pitches I wrote appealed to the interests of each outlets’ target audiences, providing a perspective of the client’s experience that extended beyond their traditional offerings. For example; one pitch I’m particulary proud of is the fishing pitch I wrote to attract an editor of a fishing outlet to visit one of our hotel-based clients. When I had the discussion with the account team related to pitching this angle, no pun intended, it seemed as though this was a route that they had not explored in-depth. Likewise, I offered forth the idea to start pitching Canadian travel journalists, as these journalists represent an “untapped” source of media that shares similar interests to the entities the organization was pitching at the time. Check out the drafts here!
Instructional Assistant
S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications
Syracuse, NY
(August 2023-May 2024)
In the Fall Semester of my graduate studies, I worked alongside Professor Melissa Richards as an instructional assistant for PRL345.1 The Ethics of Advocacy. The class featured over 50 students whom I met with individually throughout the course of the semester as needed. I hosted seven office hours per week to aid students in understanding the theoretical frameworks we were discussing in class. Together, Professor Richards and I guided students in exploring the concepts of Utilitarianism, Deontology, Virtue Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility and more. Besides the everyday processes such as recording attendance and answer student inquiries, Professor Richards also allowed me to teach my very own lesson pertaining to Facebook’s unethical accumulation of consumer data.
In the Spring Semester of my graduate studies, I worked alongside Professor Caroline Reff as an instructional assistant for PRL206.1 Public Relations Principles and Practice. This class was conducted as an introductory public relations course intended to expose students to the various career paths associated with the public relations industry. The class featured 63 students whose shared objective was to familiarize themselves with the AP Stylebook, practice formatted writing and strategically create theoretical campaigns that reflected brand positioning. On top of recording attendance, tending to IT situations and creating seating arrangements, I also hosted 10 office hours per week to aid students in developing their personalized writing styles, editing and conversing with them as needed.
Primary Contributions
• Guided over 100 students in developing their personalized writing styles during weekly office hours
• Facilitated lessons pertaining to public relations writing and ethical theory
• Demonstrated how to build a professional portfolio on Squarespace, Wix and GoDaddy
In the Fall, I additionally served as a tutor and instructional assistant for student-athletes visiting the Stevenson Educational Center located in the Lally Athletic Complex at Syracuse University. Together, student-athletes and I worked together to conquer graphic design assignments utilizing Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.
Following my time at Uniq, I felt the need to challenge myself more. I had recently graduated from Westfield State University with a B.A in Communications and felt that I was not utilizing the skills that I learned to the full extent that I could. I thoroughly enjoyed the strategic planning and implementation process my Advanced Public Relations class utilized to raise $1600.00 for the Child Sexual Exploitation Center of Hampshire County, MA during my undergraduate experience and felt that if I was going to live in my hometown, I was obligated to contribute to my community beyond selling products.
I found ROOTS Teen Center’s Program Manager position on Indeed and sent in my resume. I then received a call from Executive Director Dr. Jon Schnauber, D.SW., asking me to come down to the center for an interview. After an extensive interview process involving Dr. Schnauber, the Executive Board and the Youth Board, I was hired as the Program Manager.
My first two weeks as Program Manager I hit the ground running, presenting to an auditorium filled with 200+ high school students from my alma mater, Drury High School. The goal of the presentation was to inform the students that ROOTS Teen Center was in service, as many students were unaware that a teen center resided just down the street from them. ROOTS Drop-In Program served as the core element of the presentation, attracting students who were looking for a space to hangout with friends after school. The same night as that presentation, the center experienced an influx of 35-40 teens, of whom the majority continued to visit throughout my time as Program Manager. As Dr. Schnauber and I were the only two, full time paid staff members in the center, we had to quickly think on our feet to accommodate the rush of teens who flocked through our center doors.
At the time that the presentation was conducted, we did not have the staff to cater to the number of teens that were now visiting our center on a consistent basis. ROOTS had recently reopened and the organization was trying to re-establish the relevancy of their services in lieu of the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization struggled to provide services on a consistent basis as they were unable to retain staff members due to the lack of leadership and funding. As a result, ROOTS relied heavily on volunteers and interns to staff their programs and events, which was unreliable in the sense the volunteers did not always feel obligated to staff events as their position was unpaid. In cohesion with the sudden influx of teens visiting our center, Dr. Schnauber and I spent many hours as staff members tending to the behavioral conflicts that accompany supervising a group of 20 different teens on a nightly basis. This made it difficult to staff additional volunteers and interns as a majority of our time was dedicated to make sure that the safety of our center was maintained.
When we were able to put aside time to recruit potential volunteers and interns, we found that the processes that were in place to do so were outdated. After fielding thoughts from members of the Executive Board, Dr. Schnauber and I eventually came up with a comprehensive approach to onboarding volunteers and interns via the revision of the ROOTS Handbook. The ROOTS Handbook outlined all the forms required of potential volunteers and interns to fill out, as well as as provided a detailed description of organizational policies, standards and expectations. Once the ROOTS Handbook was revised, we advertised volunteer opportunities across our social media platforms, attracting two or three volunteers that helped us to staff our center throughout my tenure with ROOTS. We additionally onboarded three interns from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, who were crucial to sustaining a five day programming schedule.
As previously mentioned, funding was another challenge that had to be conquered. I was responsible for developing and executing programs within an established budget, however, given the circumstances at hand, I was often asked to lead external efforts to accumulate funding as well. This included writing grants, executing fundraising campaigns and building hype around ROOTS annual Show Your Teen Spirit fundraising event. The first time I ever came face to face with a grant was when Dr. Schnauber slapped the Amelia Peabody Grant and North Adams Block Grant on my desk, stating “This is due at the end of the week.” With no prior training or advice, I wrote both grants which were then edited and approved by Dr. Schnauber. I then sprinted to North Adams City Hall, arriving two minutes before the deadline to successfully submit both grants on time. The Amelia Peabody Grant was awarded $20,000.00, while the North Adams Community Block Grant was awarded $6,500.00. Fundraising efforts took the form of social media campaigns that complimented larger, communal events. Usually, fundraising campaigns were announced on our social media platforms, including the ROOTS Monthly Newsletter distributed via Constant Contact. In certain cases teens were enlisted to get involved in raising money for the center, in which the ROOTS Teen Center Team would reward the top teen contributor following the campaign’s end. This approach was limited in the sense that North Adam’s demographical make up is older in age, meaning that the majority of those that would be willing to contribute to fundraising efforts were missing the message. The ROOTS Teen Center Team raised approximately $5,000.00 from fund raising efforts conducted during my time with the organization.
About three months into my time with ROOTS, Dr. Schnauber decided to pursue other career interests, effectively withdrawing from his position as Executive Director. Though I was not officially declared the “Interim Executive Director,” I essentially inherited the Executive Director’s responsibilities from that point forward. Nobody trained me in regards to my own responsibilities, let alone the Executive Director’s responsibilities. I was more or less expected to learn on the fly, which was difficult considering this was my first experience working in a setting where public relations was crucial to the success of the organization. I had to make a choice to either fold and look elsewhere for a job, or double down on my commitment to serve the teens of Northern Berkshire County; I chose the latter.
As the only full time, paid employee at ROOTS Teen Center, I was aware of the fact that I had to work at a faster pace, but I was not willing to allow that pace to hinder the quality of the services we were offering. I made it my priority to take the time to first learn about our teens before developing and executing pointless programming and events that did not directly reflect their interests. I would constantly probe teens throughout my eight month tenure to learn more about the programs and events they would like to participate in. Surveys, sign-up sheets and a digital programming calendar were utilized to accumulate teens thoughts, further allowing me to present the findings to the Executive Board and advocate for specific programming. From there, I would then conduct research as to what communal entities were involved in addressing like-minded initiatives and engage them in discussion in relation to hosting a program or event in collaboration with ROOTS Teen Center.
I collaborated with many communal organizations, program hosts and small businesses throughout my time as Program Manager. Initial programming focused on educational aspects such as financial literacy, or career preparation and eventually evolved to address components of teens’ mental and physical health. Welcoming communal entities to host programming in the center is much like pitching media. I had to advocate how our organizational objectives and the interests of our teens aligned with the initiatives that the communal entity was supporting. In understanding that their was a genuine presence of teens interested in participating in programming relating to communal initiatives, the program host was more likely to be willing to allocate resources towards serving our teens.
The Northern Berkshire YMCA North Adams Branch, for example, wanted to attract a larger audience of teens to utilize the recreational resources that they had to offer. In hearing so, I contacted the YMCA, as I believed our teens would be mutually interested in enjoying the YMCA’s basketball court, pool and workout room. The YMCA generously offered a discounted price for ROOTS teens to visit weekly, which was paid by ROOTS, allowing our teens to access the YMCA’s facilities for free. One challenge that stood in the way of bringing our teens to the YMCA was transportation. ROOTS did not have an organizational vehicle capable of carrying 10-15 teens a week to the YMCA. I then contacted our friends from Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, whom I had known owned a van that was capable of holding 10-20 teens at a time. NBCC agreed to allocating ROOTS a timeslot for their van, picking up our teens and ROOTS and bringing them to the YMCA every Wednesday. This program mutually benefitted all parties involved as a circulation of teens was cultivated, exposing teens to different experiences offered forth by various communal entities.
This process was then replicated when creating and developing Drag Cooking with Vuronika Baked, ROOTS Teen Health Workshops, ROOTS Community Garden in collaboration with community gardener Jen Munoz and a plethora of other programs and events [listed below]. Vuronika, the Williams Students that led our Teen Health Workshops and Ms. Munhoz were all equally as passionate about educating younger members of the community as to the benefits of learning how to cook, practicing safe sex and maintaining their own garden.
The ROOTS Teen Center Team was able to serve over 150 teens who visited approximately 1500 times throughout my eight months as Program Manager of ROOTS Teen Center. I am extremely proud of the positive influence that I have had on the teens of Northern Berkshire County. This experience provided the backbone of reasoning that has guided me to pursue a career in client and community relations that focuses on delivering services to traditionally underserved populations.
Primary Contributions
Programs and Events
The Drop-In Program (developed, executed)
Teen Fitness Days at the YMCA (created, developed and executed)
Teen Health Workshops in collaboration with Williams College (created, developed, executed)
Real Talk in collaboration with Optimal Healling, LLC (developed, executed)
ROOTS Community Garden (created, developed, executed)
Northern Berkshire Community Coalition-ROOTS Bike Collective (developed, executed)
Drag Cooking with Vuronika Baked (created, develop, executed)
LGBTQIA+ Teen Meet-Ups in collaboration with North Adams Pride (created, developed, executed)
Pasta Night with Christo’s Pizza (created, developed, executed)
Financial Literacy Night in collaboration with Greylock Federal Credit Union (created, developed, executed)
Career Readiness Night in collaboration with Masshire (developed, executed)
Air-Plant Ornament Night in collaboration with the Plant Collector (developed, executed)
Surrealism Painting Workshop in collaboration with AR Designs Fine Art & Tattoo (created, developed, executed)
Introduction to Resiliency Training in collaboration with SSG. Bergeron of the National Guard (created, developed, executed)
Monthly Open Mic Nights (developed, executed)
Zines with North Adams Public Library (created, developed, executed)
Cookout with YMCA Camp Hi-Rock (created, developed, executed)
A Trip to Goodwill’s Career Development Center (created, developed, executed)
Friendsgiving (developed, executed)
ROOTS Turkey Drive (created, developed, executed)
and many more..
Social Media
Increased accounts reached (+44.4%), increased accounts engaged (+66%), total followers increased (+12.4%) on Instagram
Increased post reach (+216%) and post engagement (+123.4%) on Facebook
Managed organizational Snapchat account
Curated ROOTS Monthly Newsletter utilizing Canva and Constant Contact
Revised and managed organizational website
Media Coverage (Successful Media Placements)
Meet the North Adams drag queen Vuronika Baked who's teaching teen cooking classes
(The Berkshire Eagle)
Development
Created Incident Report Form
Revised ROOTS Handbook
Developed Volunteer Intake Process
Created a shared staff and volunteer schedule sheet
Wrote Amelia Peabody Grant
Awarded $20,000.00
Wrote North Adams Community Block Grant
Awarded $6,500.00
General Statistics
Served 150 individual teens, who visited over 1600 times in an eight month span
Average of 11 teens per day, every week day
Teens visited from 7 different schools
Uniq is a smoke and vape shop specializing in the sale of high quality glass and nicotine products. The Uniq brand separates itself from what you may traditionally perceive a smoke and vape shop to represent by providing an in-shop experience that is unlike any other. You can essentially think of Uniq as one of the Northeast’s premiere “smoke, vape and glass emporiums,” offering a vast selection of waterpipes, devices and accessories.
The Uniq experience is unique in the sense that sales associates are experts in their product. Usually when you visit a vape and smoke shop the person behind the counter has one goal in mind: to sell product. At Uniq, however, the goal is to cultivate an in-shop experience tailored to the desires, interests and needs of each and every individual who walks in the shop. Uniq sales associates take the time to engage their customers in genuine conversation, casually inserting products into the discussion based on what they perceive their customers to be interested in.
As a sales associate at Uniq, hours and pay were determined by the success of sales. The more you sold, the more hours you work and the more money you make in commission. Sales associates are held to the standard of maintaining a monthly sales quota of $70.00 per sale and $100.00 in volume per hour. Associates who are able to successfully achieve, or surpass these quotas are the ones who make the in-shop experience personal to the customer at hand. This may take shape in the form of following up on conversation that was had prior, or denoting an appealing aspect of the customer’s presence (such as having cool shoes, a nice car, telling a joke, etc.). Overtime, associates cultivate their own group of “regulars” whom visit the shop with the intention to interact with that associate specifically. This process is then rinsed and repeated, meaning that those who retain their regulars are more likely to achieve their monthly quotas, work more hours and get paid more in commission. During my time as a Uniq Sales Associate I sold approximately $100,000.00 worth of product.
The communications representative position was a position that was created as a result of me asking my supervisor to manage the shop’s Instagram account. After realizing that our shop’s Instagram page was lacking in terms of how often we were posting, I offered to take the reigns of the account. I created 12 Instagram reels and posts highlighting the aesthetic and functionality of various products, resulting in numerous instances where customers came into the shop asking about the products that were advertised on the Instagram page specifically. Managing the account also allowed for my supervisor to focus on training new associates, rather than tending to the shop’s Instagram page, which could be rather tedious.
For some reason Squarespace likes to link this page to this video, please scroll to the top if so!
I am extremely grateful to have worked as a sales associate and communications representative at Uniq. This experience taught me how to maintain a favorable relationship with consumers, as well as how to appeal to the interests and desires of a niche audience.
Primary Contributions
Engaged customers directly in sales, achieving $100,000 in revenue
Curated social media content to market products on the shop's Instagram account
Attended community events and festivals to engage potential consumer bases
@uniq_na on Instagram (link in title)
Uniq sells a variety of products from exotic snacks and themed candles, to some of the world’s most sought after waterpipes.
Research & Communications Intern
Office of Massachusetts State Representative John Barrett III
Conducted Remotely in North Adams, MA
(February 2021-April 2021)
My internship with Massachusetts State Representative John Barrett III was the only internship that the representative has ever hosted. Although the experience was limited in the sense that it was carried out remotely, I enjoyed assisting the representative’s official secretary in answering the public’s questions and directing them towards the resources thatwould be the most helpful. To do so, I spent hours researching state and federal funding, application processes and trending news stories to better understand the Commonwealth’s questions and desires. Towards the end of the internship, I offered to help write anything that Rep. Barrett III may have on his agenda, in which he allowed me to write letters of support expressing his support of communal organizations that have applied for state funding. Representative Barrett was extremely flexible and listened to the skills that I had to offer, allowing me to essentially create my own experience.
Primary Contributions
Managed confidential information on a regular basis
Advised public constituents regarding state and federal application processes
Wrote letters of support on behalf of Rep. Barrett
Conducted research of state and federal funding pertaining to housing and COVID-19 relief
Viator, (2023).
