The first day of my internship was very productive and interesting. I met my new supervisor at 8am on the first day of school to go to the very first Social Media Professionals Roundtable at the Volunteer Center of Sonoma County. I did not know what to expect until she talked about the meeting in her car.
"Working with social media professionally can help nonprofits to address their missions and connect with the resources they need. Yet, working with social media is new to a lot of nonprofit professionals and many feel isolated," my supervisor explained. The purpose of the meeting is to exchange ideas and share experiences with other professionals. She wanted me to blog about the Roundtable and my experience attending.
I'm An Okada, a junior at Sonoma State University. I'm an international student from Japan majoring in English. I am interning in the Center for Community Engagement because I want to become a journalist in the future. I thought that it would be amazing to develop my skills by writing about Sonoma State and the community we work with.
After I knew I would join the meeting, I became nervous because it was not only the first day of my internship and of the spring semester, but also it was the first meeting of the Roundtable, and it sounded very important. When I arrived at the Volunteer Center, I met Jaime Smedes, Coordinator of the Resource Center for Nonprofits. Although she wasn't expecting any students to come, she was welcoming and gave me a name tag, just like all the other participants. I think that she was excited about this new program, but, interestingly, she wasn't nervous. I noticed that she was excited because the meeting was what she really wanted. So, I was reminded that the reason why I had this internship was to become a journalist, and I knew I had to relax in order to be successful.
Register for the next Social Media Roundtable at the Volunteer Center of Sonoma County
In this meeting, there were different kinds of people, and the discussion became really interesting because they had different perspectives. One of my favorite topics was about Twitter. Anne Bartlett, Literacy Connection Coordinator at Volunteer Center of Sonoma County had a question about how to use Twitter with it's character limits. So, the group discussed how they can use it well, by using hashtags, locations, pictures, and retweets.
I also enjoyed a conversation about Facebook. They talked about how it is a good tool to communicate with different people. They said links and images should be used to engage users. On the other hand, they talked about the disadvantages of Facebook. As more people use it, their Newsfeeds become messy very easily. So, they discussed how to make their posts stand out.
After the meeting was over, some people stayed and talked. They looked so eager to connect and learn from each other. This situation was unusual for me. In my school, I usually see most of students try to leave their classrooms as soon as possible. But, some participants of the meeting were staying to talk with each other and my supervisor because they wanted to learn more. I saw the differences between the students and the professionals, and it was an interesting perspective for me.
In conclusion, I had a great beginning of my internship. My feelings before I started are completely different from now; I'm a lot less nervous and so excited to have joined the meeting and to write this blog now. I'm satisfied with this work, and excited to write about the next new topics!