Our last week of CUPID blogging before summertime will highlight past and upcoming internships of our PWR students! First, Christine Meyer ’14 writes about her experience interning at the Hayden-Harman Foundation.
Hi CUPID Readers,
It’s been some time now since I have posted something on the CUPID Blog, but I wanted to use this opportunity to talk a little bit about my internship experience this semester.
I am interning at the Hayden-Harman Foundation in High Point during the spring semester. The Hayden-Harman Foundation is a charitable organization that focuses specifically on private, independent programs. This spring, I am assisting with the Hayden-Harman Foundation program in the Washington Street Historic District. Washington Street was once a flourishing part of High Point and served as a cultural hub for High Point residents. However, it’s been left in need of repair. The Hayden-Harman foundation seeks to reestablish the old vibrancy for the surrounding residents.
Throughout the internship experience, I am being mentored by my Elon advisor, Rebecca Pope-Ruark along with my internship advisor, Patrick Harman. I have worked with Patrick Harman before in community engagement efforts; however, my internship responsibilities this semester are much greater. Thus far, my primary projects during the internship have included completing the new Washington Street website, the creation of a rack card for spring events, and a promotional flier for an activity during furniture market week in High Point.
I have spent a lot of time developing the rack card for spring time events on Washington Street. I decided it was best to create a rack card that could be easily manipulated and changed depending on the event/activity. The rack card is designed to encourage local residents to participate in the community events. There was a lot of back and forth and various drafts of the rack card, but this allowed me to play around with designs, phrasing, and other rhetorical choices. It also provided me with experience to work with a number of individuals and chose what I thought was best to incorporate. A PDF of the rack card is documented below.
Springtime on Washington St. Rack Card
I have also gained experience with face to face communication during my time in High Point. Harman prefers the door-to-door methods of communication. He believes this will help foster community engagement. Though time consuming, I completely agree with his communication methods. There’s no better way to build community engagement than to interact with the community. It’s a great way to meet the local residents and build a strong networking base.
Overall, I have utilized my PWR skills and experience in this internship. Classes such as CUPID Studio and Understanding Rhetoric provided a great groundwork for working with real people in real scenarios.
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