My Internship In A Nutshell

I don’t think I could fit my internship experience into a nutshell. There have been too many different opportunities, experiences, and tasks to fit into such a tiny space.

Since June 10th I have:

*Learned the accounting software… somewhat.
*Side swiped a pole with my car in the parking garage. (I don’t park there anymore.)
*Designed a t-shirt.
*Made a movie.
*Answered the phone, “Good Afternoon, Liggett Stashower” over the paging system.
*Sat on a beam over the city to take pictures… kind of.
*Reserved a conference room for 4am.
*Became some people’s favorite person of the day when I got to pass out checks.
*Went to a local news station, printing press, radio station, and publishing company.
*Became familiar with the infamous Euclid construction.
*Got jolted around in the Halle Building elevators.
*Went to lunch with some very knowledgeable and friendly executives.
*Was able to experience all the different aspects of the agency, not just financial.
*Learned about professional organizations and their importance.
*Not eaten the Chinese food in the building’s “cafeteria”.
*Become very comfortable talking to upper management and asking questions.
*Made some great new friends.

So, as you see, I would have to find a pretty large nutshell to fit all of that. I am sure there are tons of things that I have forgotten, too. Yet, I will never forget the people at Liggett who have helped me through this experience and the fun that I have had this summer.

Kelly M.
Finance Intern

Oh, the Places You Will Go

In response to Olivia’s and Adam’s blogs, I can honestly say that I was lucky to have the opportunity to work and learn from such a talented, dedicated, and focused group of college students. The interns here are dedicated. They are qualified. They are knowledgeable in their areas of study. And they don’t take themselves too seriously. Working together, we have learned that we are going places.

I myself have done some reflection as I’ve started preparing to write my internship experience paper for school. I think my paper will focus on a larger lesson I’ve learned this summer: just because I’ve had one, nine-week internship doesn’t mean I hold the keys to career success in my hands. I will continue to grow both personally and professionally with each position I hold.

Since high school, my parents and teachers have stressed the importance of relationship building and being an effective communicator. I took a course last semester solely dedicated to learning how to communicate and network. Coming into this internship, I thought I knew everything about interacting with other people because I had just taken a great class that I learned a lot in. Boy, was I wrong. It wasn’t until I started interning at Liggett that I realized that relationship building and communicating is harder than it sounds. Through my interactions with the people here at Liggett, interns and full-time professionals alike, I’ve learned more about communicating by observing good communicators in action than I could learn from any textbook.

So I encourage all all college students, regardless of major, to interview as much as they can and talk to as many experienced professionals as they can. This internship has given me a different perspective about my career, and has taught me that no college course can replace the knowledge gained from an experience in a professional setting.

So, as you plan your future careers, remember to get involved in a professional or volunteer organization or give an internship a shot. If you get yourself out there as much as you can, you will go many places – I can almost guarantee it.



Marie D.
Program Management Intern

My Summer Well Spent

It is with mixed emotions that I write this last blog entry for the LS intern blog. These past nine weeks have been the most professionally and personally fulfilling experience I’ve ever had. In past summers, I’ve held retail jobs at the mall, baby-sat little kids and wasted the days away swimming in my pool. This summer I’ve pitched to local and national media publications, seen the interaction between agencies and television stations, radio stations, printing presses and publishing companies, and made seven great friends.

My favorite part of the LS internship has been collaborating with the seven other interns to create a cohesive theme to represent our experiences here. Together we created a T-shirt, DVD and poster to leave behind our mark on the LS Intern Wall. Our theme was “Building professionals one intern at a time.” And I truly think that’s what this agency has built us into.I never once was afraid to approach anyone at LS with questions, comments or problems.

The quality of people at this agency is high. They truly treat their interns like employees; my ideas were taken seriously and my presence felt meaningful. As another intern said in a previous blog, this was by far the hardest class I’ve taken, but definitely the best learning experience. I feel that these 9 weeks have prepared me for my last year in college, and most importantly, the real world. I certainly don’t feel like I know everything I need to know, but I know what I have left to learn.

Olivia M.

Program Management Intern

Intern Party

We just had our intern party/open house this past Thursday. It was quite a success. Our friends, family and co-workers came to see what we interns have been doing/creating this summer. After giving my mother an official agency tour we gathered with the rest of the group in the main conference room to give our intern presentation. Then it hit me, we only have a week left at this internship.

I remember walking through the elevator the first day of my internship. I was excited to meet everyone and start doing some real agency work. I got to my clean office,(which is now a total wreck) straightened my pens and pencils, checked my LS e-mail account and started my day. Next came the difficult process of attempting to remember the 7 strangers (interns) names and schools they attended.

Those 7 not so strangers were standing beside me Thursday evening ready to tell everyone about our time at Liggett Stashower. It’s hard to sum up what we did the last 8 weeks because the days were full of different tasks and jobs. So we focused mainly on our intern project, which consisted of presenting our t-shirt, poster and DVD.
After our sweet presentation the night was over as quickly as it began.

Check out our T-shirt and Poster below...






Adam F.
Program Management Intern

PowerShop

Although I am still a firm believer in the ethics of journalism and public relations, I cannot help but recognize the power technology has placed within the hands of advertisers and the media.

Here’s a great example: How have Hollywood singers and actors become so flawless? When you pick up the latest issue of Cosmopolitan or InStyle, you immediately notice the perfection that graces over the cover. Not one blemish is in sight, not one piece of hair is out of place and the cover girls’ skin tone is radiantly glowing.

Now being an “average” American woman, I stand in the grocery check out line and silently curse these singers and actors for being “so perfect.” I mean come on, can people really look THAT AMAZING?!?!

The answer to my question doesn’t lie within hours upon hours of workouts or natural herbal exfoliation treatments. In fact it can be found in the 20” box that is sitting in front of your face at this very moment. The computer has forever changed the production of magazines, advertisements and print materials. Programs like Photoshop create perfection, making obtainable to the naked eye.

Now I am not challenging the ethics of this topic, however I cannot help but be absolutely amazed at how much one is able to change, simply by uploading a picture onto the computer. I am practically speechless! I am fascinated by how much one can change and modify through the computer.

Here are examples from Dove and Jezebel. Please leave some comments about these two pieces!



Crista S.
Program Management Intern

Local Celebrities

The interns and myself found ourselves face to face with some local celebrities this past week. We took a field trip to a local radio station and had lunch with the sport’s talk DJ. Upon arriving at the radio station we found out we were going to be meeting a former Brown’s player too! We sat in on some of the broadcast and listened to these guys talk sports. They were both very friendly and down to earth.
We also got a run down on how things work behind the scenes during a radio broadcast. The DJ had to do some live advertising while on the air, too. That was exciting because during our internship at Liggett we have learned a little something about that!

The other local celebrities we came into contact with this week were each other. Our Liggett intern blog (the very blog you are reading right now) was mentioned in an article in The New York Times! We are very excited that people are interested in what we are doing during our internship at Liggett.

These run-ins with local celebrities got me thinking, though. We see athletes and celebrities being paid millions and millions to do endorsements for different companies. Yet, more than not these days, celebrities and athletes are getting some publicity for being the opposite of upstanding citizens. Why are these celebrities getting paid millions to promote products and then use those millions to get themselves out of prison for DUI charges and charges of drug possession? We all obviously know the answer… those are the people who make the product sell. Yet, I think that we as a society should start looking at the local celebrities as the ones we should be focusing on. Why not feature a college student with a great internship in a “Got Milk?” ad? Why not feature the football player who may not be making millions, but is a really nice guy in a Coca-Cola ad?

Until then, I suppose it isn’t such a bad thing to be so normal. As Brad Paisley says: “Cause when you’re a celebrity, it’s adios reality.”



Kelly M.
Finance Intern