I definitely believe that my learning goals were met this summer. Going into the internship, I didn’t know entirely what to expect, but my main goal was to gain true, realistic experience in a field of interest to me. This covered many fields of interest – among them were social media, graphic design, professional sports, law, public and player relations, and data collection. The realistic aspect to this is what truly made it a unique learning experience. As I explained in my previous blog posts, I have previous social media experience, but never in managing a page that has a real impact on the lives of many people. The content I put out had to be mindful of how it’s perceived so there was a lot of responsibility there.
While I am not completely sure what I want to do in the future, I feel like this internship has started to clarify a general path for me. My growth in graphic design is something I definitely have an interest in pursuing, and my social media experience is something I will continue to utilize. As I approach my senior year, I imagine myself working in a creative environment – whether that is in social media and graphic design or another field like marketing, I am not exactly sure. But I do believe that I want to tie my Psychology and Politics education – which has taught me so much about human behavior – into what I have learned this summer.
This summer I have learned that I am capable of doing more than I once believed. For example, I agreed to get in front of the camera and do an Instagram takeover for the official Brandeis Instagram page, documenting a day in the life of my internship. I never considered myself the most charismatic individual, and never really had the confidence to get in front of a camera. But this internship has taught me to be much more responsible and I have matured throughout it, so I have much more confidence in things like that.
The end goal of my internship is for the organization to become self-sufficient with its social media campaign, and thus may not be available for future applicants. That said, the USL Players Association is a young organization that is growing in prominence, so if an internship does become available it could be very beneficial for both the student and the union. I am really excited to see the USLPA grow and would always be glad to see future interns helping steer that growth. More broadly, unions are on the rise and incredibly important in all fields of business. Getting experience working in unions and particularly with modern day marketing (i.e, Social Media) is supportive of any career path a student goes down.
There are a few things in particular that I am proud of this summer. As I mentioned previously, the Instagram takeover is something that I never saw myself having courage to try. I had fun with that, but my proudest aspect wasn’t one moment in particular. This summer I am most proud of the overall work I did, because of the purpose it that work. Working in a labor union is very personally rewarding. Throughout the summer, I was working to improve the lives of hundreds if not thousands of players, while pursuing to improve the conditions of people that are often overworked, underpaid, and underrepresented. So my proudest moment wasn’t one moment at all; it was the work I did and the cause it went to.
The full video of my takeover can be found at the following link (swipe through many stories before getting to my takeover at the end) stories: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17947397956270098/
A statement regarding the suspension of a manager for alleged misconduct on players.
A congratulatory post regarding USL Championship club Sacramento Republic FC upsetting an MLS club for the third consecutive to reach the US Open Cup Final.
An announcement regarding the vacancy of the executive director’s role in the USLPA.