I was in a telephone booth in the Longworth Building on Capitol Hill when I received notice that I was offered a summer public relations and social media internship with RJL Solutions. I was so excited I squealed at the thought of exploring the private sector back in my hometown of Indianapolis. But the process to get to that point wasn’t simple by any means.
The clichéd coffee-running job was looming over my head as I went down the list of summer internship applications. Especially during a four-month internship in the U.S. House of Representatives filled with running miscellaneous errands around Capitol Hill, answering constituent phone calls and mailing thousands of letters (on letterhead that must be completed correctly the first time because it is too expensive to redo).
It was during the summer going into my senior year when I started my first day at RJL. With the help of a picture-perfect backdrop of the Statehouse and weekly meetings with full-time employees on the team, I felt like I was providing well-curated content and receiving long-term professional development insight. There were plenty of networking opportunities to meet local and state leaders and be a part of critical conversations. I had never experienced an internship like this one: collaborating with other interns that pushed me to be my best self, personally and professionally, and learning from high-energy professionals who believed in me more than I did. And in what other internship do you get one-on-one time with the coolest CEO?
What really pushed me to be the best version of myself was the intern project. All summer long each intern created and led their own initiative that they would choose to implement at RJL if they had the means to do so. I was intrigued by the business development and public relations work that RJL does across the state, so I created a weekend-long small business market, called Prep Professionalism, for employers and potential employees with workshops, keynote speakers and job fairs.
It was difficult to really navigate the scope, but I spent time with team members in different departments to iron out all those wrinkles. Well, I must have done something right because I received an overwhelming number of positive responses from everyone. Less than a week later my internship mentor was offering me a part-time position as PR Coordinator while I completed my senior year at Butler University.
I just couldn’t turn an opportunity like that down…
In May, I will have been with RJL for an entire year. And I didn’t do one coffee run, but, as a team, we drank so much coffee that we had to get a new Keurig.
My professors and peers are constantly impressed with the time management skills I am developing, my ever-changing portfolio and even my business professional attire, but most importantly that I was able to land such a well-suited post-grad job so early.
RJL has played a major role in my personal and professional growth this past year, and not just because it is a caffeinated company. I owe it all to the team members. While internships can be difficult to land and execute, everyone at RJL has and continues to welcome me with open arms and believes in my potential in a unique way.
I cannot wait to become a full-time PR Manager at RJL Solutions this summer and continue to flourish in my professional endeavors.
