May 2009

With only about a month left until the end of the spring semester, I can honestly say that interning at Inkberry has been a fantastic experience. I began the internship, nervous about having a “real job” experience. Much to my delight, my internship duties came easy to me. My (mostly self-taught) computer skills were a big advantage for me along with my diverse background in writing. What I didn’t know coming into the internship, I easily learned. One day, towards the beginning of the semester, I had a brief introduction to Adobe Illustrator, and was also shown how to maintain the Inkberry Web site. Two different people gave the tutorials, but I was still able to retain everything that I was taught. Two months later, I am able to easily create flyers, and add or update anything on the Web site.

Computer skills aside, I still am asked to make copies of flyers and to distribute them around town, to go to the bank, to file receipts, and attend Inkberry events. When it comes to publicizing events, I am often in charge of getting information from the authors participating in events. I have found all these authors to be very polite and willing to oblige.

Aside from Inkberry duties, I have also spent the semester participating in weekly Write Stuff sessions at the Conte middle school. This too has been a very interesting experience. Though I had kids flow in and out of my session time (one of which I never even met), I am now currently the mentor for a very bright young man, who’s writing skills are very good for his age level. If the experience has taught me anything, it’s that I know I could never be a teacher. This is not to say that I don’t enjoy working with the kids, but that I’m not a very authoritative person: I don’t like telling people what to do.

All in all I think I’ve developed some incredibly useful skills that I can bring with me into the “real world,” and it is all thanks to my Inkberry Internship.