Journal Entry 10: Our Exposure

From my time at Unity For Equality, I learned how much people actually see the things we do. If our social media manager made a mistake in any of his posts, people will tell my supervisor. It surprises me that people are aware of what we do. Recently, Unity For Equality had the highest honors of standing with Council Member Paul Vallone, Congressman Joseph Crowley, State Senator Tony Avella, Assemblyman Daniel Rosenthal, Community Board 7 Representatives, the College Point Civic Taxpayers Association, Civic Leaders and Community Members to rally against a proposed homeless shelter in College Point. We are getting attention which is good.

Journal Entry 9: Learning How to Deal With Different People

What I’ve learned from Unity For Equality is how to deal with different types of people. There are a lot of different personalities I’ve encountered while interning at Unity For Equality. I learned how to approach each person differently because not always does one way for one person mean it’ll work for everyone. When it comes to my team, I’m on top them since they have deadlines. At the same time, I’m easily approachable for others to ask questions. When it comes to other people in the organization, such as the board of directors, I learned to have patience with them since they ask for ads to be created as well. It will take a while to get the information I need from them but I do understand that they are busy with other tasks in their roles.

Journal Entry 8: Grandparent’s Day

 

On August 15th, I joined in on Unity For Equality celebrating Grandparent’s day. Unity for Equality Worked together with Advanced Senior Adult Day Care to provide school supplies for the grandkids in celebration of Grandparents Day. Not only did we pass out school supplies for the grandkids at the Senior Daycare, but we also did Zumba, trivia, and bingo with everyone there. After we were done with the activities, we stayed for dinner which was Chinese food that was brought in by a catering business.  

Journal Entry 7: My Performance

Well done!

Overall for this internship, I think I performed pretty well. Not only was my supervisor happy with the designs I was creating but he moved me up to being a director. My supervisor liked that I was more productive in my tasks than the previous director. I was able to adapt to this position fairly quickly. I keep everyone on my team busy which my supervisor really appreciate. I figured out who on my team is as able to work on a quick deadline. I also figured what assignments can I give to each person based on how they design. One person would be good at making mailers while another person is good at making logos. I made sure that everyone knew their deadline as well as the assignment each person had to do. It was a big responsibility that seemed intimidating to take on at first, but I picked it up quickly and do a pretty good performance.

 

Journal Entry 6: First Collaborative Project

My first collaborative project was when my team and I were working on the October newsletter. When I  became a director, I also became the head of the newsletter. My team for the newsletter consists of 3 people. I came up with the topics for the articles then I distribute them to my team. My team and I had to write the articles as well as designing the spreads. We would communicate through our own emails that we received from Unity For Equality. We also communicated through text messaging on the WhatsApp. So far, we have been successful with the newsletter. The feedback we got from people were positive. The only thing that needs work is for everyone to turn in their drafts on time to be checked over before handing it over to our supervisor.

Journal Entry 5: Learning How to Create a Marketing Plan

Marketing

What I ended up learning from Unity For Equality is how to create a marketing plan. Usually, in my advertising classes, we don’t necessarily go over market plans even though the professors told us it’s a good thing to have in mind. We would just come up with a brief and start brainstorming ideas from the brief as well as finally executing those ideas. My supervisor asked me to come up with a marketing plan since adverting is a component of marketing and I’m the only one who has done advertising.

I didn’t know how to go about making one at first but with help from my friend who told me about Unity For Equality, I was able to pull it off. She actually took marketing class but she was the president so she wasn’t asked to do one. I asked my supervisor that I do need her help because she was the only person qualified for marketing. He said we can work together so that I can learn what else goes into marketing besides the advertising part.

Journal Entry 4: Work Environment

office space

Unity For Equality’s attire is business casual. I will wear black sacks with either a nice blouse or a white button down shirt. The workstation is in an open office filled with macs computers. If you have your own laptop that you wish to work on then you can bring it in. Everyone works 8 hours a day Monday through Friday with an hour of break time. We have departments in  Public Affairs, Programming, Member Services, Community Relations, Social Worker, Financial Aid, Grants and Contract, Housing Programs, and Career Development.

Journal Entry 3: Learning About Leadership

Teamwork

So far, what I have learned from Unity For Equality is how to be a leader for my team. This is the first time I’ve been put in a leadership position. I’m used to being the one to follow orders so I was a little scared when I got the news I was the new Public Affairs Director. I was called in for a meeting to go over my responsibilities and I was getting nervous because I was overthinking my tasks. Also, I was asking my supervisor for approval of each of my action. He told me that I don’t have to go to him, I can do whatever I want with the team. I was very scared of me messing up. When I was first giving out tasks, I felt like calling my supervisor but I had to trust myself. After a while, I got used to being in the position as Public Affairs Director. Eventually, I didn’t feel nervous at all and I felt more confident in the decisions I made.

Journal Entry 2: Interview

I found out about Unity For Equality through a friend who is an alumni from Citytech. I was asking my friends if anyone knew about any open internships. My friend who told me about Unity For Equality actually ended up working there. She told her boss (my supervisor) about me and he wanted to meet with me. I had a one-on-one in-person interview with him. In the first half of the interview, he was going over what Unity For Equality was about as well as showing me past designs that were made for the organization.

My supervisor wanted a lot of stuff to get redesigned because the previous person who did their designs didn’t do a good job. I showed him a few pieces of my work and he loved it. My supervisor asked me questions such as “How long have I been designing?”, “What programs do I use to design?” and with each project, I showed him he proceeded to ask, “How did I come up with the idea?”. There wasn’t much wait, my supervisor assigned me with my first task after we were done with the interview. After I did several design assignments for Unity for Equality, my supervisor made me director of the Public Affairs Department since he saw that I was punctual and had hard work ethics.