I can’t even begin to describe how nervous I was to begin my internship at Shea’s Performing Arts Center as a Theater Administrative Intern. I’ve loved the theater my whole life and have been to countless shows at Shea’s so I was very excited when I found out that the company offered internships to communication students. My job since graduating high school has been in the restaurant business, so it is safe to say that it was very different for me to have my own cubicle and desk where I could keep my things. I work with an alumna of Canisius who has already taught me so much about the Development side of an organization.
My first week was spent getting to know the office and the computer systems so that I could save everything I worked on into the proper folders. The first two days consisted of a lot of mailing and stuffing of envelopes but it was work that needed to be done none the less. The second week is when I really began to learn, though. I made a donor solicitation list for the 90th Anniversary Black Tie Gala and after organizing all of the contact information, I was taught how to perform a mail merge and print personalized letters and envelopes for all of the companies on the list. I know it wasn’t much but after I stuffed the envelopes and got all of the letters ready to be sent to the companies I had chosen, I felt very fulfilled and satisfied with my work. I’ve never done office work before and honestly I’ve never even used Excel before (I’ve even googled how to do certain things and have been teaching myself as I go along). It’s really interesting doing this sort of work where I have different tasks to complete. A lot of the work I am doing is actually implementing the skills I have learned in my college classes, which is a really big relief. It is wonderful to know that when I graduate there will be places for me to use my skills and knowledge as well as broaden my mind. I already feel like I have gained a lot of new skills here and I am slowly adjusting to the office work atmosphere that is entirely different than that of a restaurant. It is a very casual workplace where all of the coworkers are friendly and approachable. It’s only been two weeks so far but I can already tell that I am going to enjoy my time here and I am really looking forward to learning more and more about the communication and development field while I am here. And I would also love to get to know the theater better.
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