From Reading to the Red Carpet...

Last weekend I spent my time surrounded by bright lights, red carpets, and celebrities, plenty of celebrities. If you had asked me one year ago where I would have spent the weekend of February 8th 2009 I might have answered with something along the lines of, “how would I know?”, “probably in the library where I always am”, or maybe even “at a sorority meeting”. Little did I know that the answer to that question would have been ‘at the GRAMMY’s’.

Now my name is not Beyonce, Britney, or Madonna, so naturally I did not attend the awards themselves but I came pretty close. I spent three days in the Talent Lounge and Official GRAMMY After Party where celebrities got a second shot at Christmas when they received the coveted ‘gift bag’. I was a talent escort and got to walk talent through the lounge and distribute bags to the guests at the after party. How did I get this opportunity you ask? I stayed in touch with an internship.

I am a communications major here at Albright, and as such, it was required of me to get an internship in order to graduate. To fulfill that requirement, I spent my summer working for a company called Distinctive Assets. They do a variety of things in the entertainment industry, but their claim to fame is the gift bags at various award shows.

My internship technically ended in August but luckily for me, Distinctive Assets recognized that the work the company does doesn’t stop once an intern leaves. Many times interns will leave the company in the middle of a long term project. In order to give their interns the best opportunity possible they maintain an open door policy and all interns, past and present, are invited to return to work subsequent events the company participates in (this includes all of the high profile events that they sponsor).

My supervisor Chinue Wells, operations manager at Distinctive Assets explained, “Some of our interns work with us on our off-season of award shows. They usually come back to work the GRAMMY Awards so that they can get the full span of the Distinctive Assets experience. If they are with us during the planning stages and not the execution, it is of full benefit for them to return. In addition, any experience gained will be a useful tool.”

Senior Brittani Kelly attended the events as well and said, “I think it’s really cool that they invite their interns to come back and work. I also had an internship at a company that did events but when I was done my internship that was it, it was like I cut all ties to them unless I wanted a recommendation for a job.”

Before I started working at Distinctive Assets I had no idea that it was an option to go back and work once your internship was finished unless you were hired by the company. I guess then it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to find out that many other students shared that view as well.

“I worked in Florida over the summer with a company that tracked sea turtles. I was really sad to leave,” said senior Marci Nawrocki, “I would have loved to go back over school breaks to check on my favorite animals and to continue getting experience. I wish I had looked into that.”

Several majors at Albright require internships and many offer it as an elective credit. It would be hard to find a professor or administrator on campus that didn’t encourage getting one. For those students who are currently interning or looking for internships in the future, don’t be afraid to ask about working once you are finished. It is a great way to continue networking and gaining real world experience.

Hey, one day it might even be you at the GRAMMY’s.