ERH-411 Final Reflective Essay & Creative Piece

Reflective Tag:

This assignment is my reflective essay for my time as an Intern with the Communications and Marketing department at VMI. This essay shows my ability to reflect upon my learning and past experiences (7). At the end of the essay there is a creative piece which is a letter I was asked to write to incoming rats about my experience in the ratline. This piece shows my ability to craft creative works, as well as reflect on my learning (6 + 7).  This creative piece also shows me using rhetorical devices in a civil and professional setting, as I appeal to emotions, and explain my credibility as someone who has completed the ratline and succeeded at VMI. I included this assignment because my internship was one of the biggest and most important parts of my time as an English Major. This reflective essay explains what I got out of the experience, which was a great way for me to do Fieldwork and very beneficial. There is also a letter I had to write to incoming rats, which offered me a chance to reflect on the ratline as a second classmen. For me, that piece represents a transition for me to a first classmen. After writing that piece in the spring of second class year, I felt that I had accomplished everything required of me as a cadet up to that point, as was moving into the mentor role of a first classmen.

Communications and Marketing Intern at VMI

For my 2nd class year fieldwork project, I had the exciting opportunity to earn an internship with VMI’s Communications and Marketing department. Over the course of the semester I learned many skills that I believe have helped prepare me for a possible career in the field. Among many of these positive and educating experiences have been photography and photo editing, videography, learning to write in new modes, and marketing VMI to incoming cadets. All of these experiences have allowed me to use what I’ve learned as an English major in new ways, and I’ve realized how the major can be limitlessly applicable in the real world.

One of the cornerstones of communications is photography, and learning to take pictures was an important skill that helped me tap into the creative side of the major. The office would not be able to put out stories about cadet life, important events on Post, or other news without photos to supplement writings. For this reason, photography was one of the first skills I learned during my internship. Having never taken more than a sunset picture on my smartphone, I was quite intimidated when the talented John Robertson and Kelly Nye handed me my very own camera to use during the semester. Even more intimidating was when they put an enormous, expensive looking camera in my hands began to explain foreign concepts such as F-stop, ISO, and shutter speed. It seemed impossible to capture the perfectly clear and candid shots that everyone else in the office was already able to take, while simultaneously paying attention to not getting faces of underage civilians, making sure any cadet uniforms looked representative of VMI, and other parameters. However, after a few shoots with Kelly’s guidance, I shot Breakout and was successful enough to have one of my photos included in the Institute’s Tumblr account. Gaining confidence, I went out on my own one morning for a shoot at North Post and was surprised to see that I could now take respectable photos on my own.

Going hand in hand with photography, photo editing was also a huge component of my job here, and changing pictures to appeal to an audience or choosing certain types of shots was made easier for me by leaning on my knowledge in rhetoric. Though I never came close to mastering all the intricacies of photoshop, watching Kelly and learning some tricks of the trade such as adding layers, cropping out unwanted areas, or adding other different types of effects to get the result you want  showed me just how important this skill is in a communications or public relations office. A lot of my muscle in this regard came in the form of making selections. When one of the office professionals finished a large shoot, for an event such as Midwinter Formal, a retirement parade, or Breakout, I would be tasked with culling the hundreds of photos into a small sample representative of the entire group. I could feel my knowledge as an English major at work as I thought about the rhetorical purpose of the shoot and what the audience should understand about the photos I had chosen from the large group.

Similarly to photography, videography was another foreign skill that I didn’t think I could learn. However, drawing on my creative vision and knowledge of rhetoric once again made learning the new task easier. Unlike writing and reporting, operating a video camera was something I had never done when I began the internship. The best way to learn is to do something, and I learned the most about this essential job function while sitting on the first base line at a VMI baseball game. Operating the video camera wasn’t anything like taking still photos — beside holding the camera with two hands, keeping lighting and other aforementioned VMI-specific parameters in mind, and pointing it at what I wanted to capture, it was a skill all on its own that I needed to learn. In order to develop this skill, I had to practice one on one with expert Steve Hanes. Though he used a lot of jargon, by paying close attention and with a bit of practice, I went from never having used one of these special cameras to helping the department by filming a baseball game for a live broadcast in a matter of minutes. Albeit with a much simpler camera, I also filmed some Breakout events which ended up on the VMI Instagram page. During that busy time of the year, I also created a short video project capturing the essence of breakout, though the clients decided to go with different material.

While photography and video were more like added bonuses to me, as an English major with a passion for writing, writing was the most important part of my job. As an intern I had the exciting opportunity to write a full-length article for the Institute Report magazine, for which I got numerous calls and texts from Alumni congratulating me. The most important part of this writing assignment for me was learning how to write in the special mode of news reporting. While I was used to writing academic and research papers, writing for a publications office with the goal of communicating information or sharing stories was a new and exciting way to express myself. The first draft of my magazine article had to be completely reformatted because I did not understand that each paragraph should only be about two sentences, and I didn’t know how to introduce quotes in the genre of reporting. The paragraph structure, word choices, quotations, and formatting were completely new to me, and I was fortunate to be helped along the way by editor and assistant director John Robertson. Other types of writing I did for the magazine were many photo captions, where my English major skill of getting a message across in a clear and concise way became more useful than ever before. These captions had to be just a sentence or two, but also needed to fully explain pictures that were crucial to the main story.  I also wrote deep-cuts, which are small stories that describe a photo and are used to fill space in the magazine. Tumblr captions describing cadet activities and press release blurbs announcing incoming speakers also provided me the opportunity to become familiar with writing in this new capacity.

Writing as well as other special projects continued for me across the hall in the marketing department. Social media branding and captioning were something I had done for personal use, but it was a new challenge to consider a larger and much different audience. Rather than the challenge of presenting myself to others, I was now faced with the challenge of presenting the Institute in a way that satisfies both “helicopter moms,” cadets, and old school alumni. To satisfy all of our very different audience members, we had to think about our content in a way that makes VMI seem tough and rooted in tradition, but also fair to all and free of hazing. The constant challenge of pleasing alumni who are quick to comment “back in my day” tropes was another factor we always had to try to work around, just as comments from parents worried about the wellbeing of their students was constantly in the back of our minds. While negative comments are inevitable with an audience of almost 11,000 followers, the key to creating good content for the page is to choose images carefully, and word captions in a general way that won’t upset anyone.

A different social media account took up most of my time with the marketing team, however, and my skills in oral and interpersonal communications, rhetorical situation, and writing were used in ways I never imagined. “InsideVMI” is a new website and marketing effort for the team. It is a social media account of sorts which allows incoming cadets or prospective cadets access to a site where they can read and learn about life as a cadet and ask questions to ambassadors. As a site ambassador and the only cadet with access to the site, I received numerous questions about what a typical day for me was like, how to format the application, fitness standards, and many others. In this capacity I began to truly understand marketing, as I attempted to be honest about the VMI experience while spinning the challenges in a positive way, as not to scare prospective tution-payers away. It was incredibly challenging to answer questions such as “Is there hazing at VMI,” or “How hard is VMI?” in an honest manner that also explains the many positive aspects of the process. Another assignment I had for the site was a personal narrative essay post describing the challenge and rewards of my first year here. It was a challenge to create something that explained how tough the ratline is, while still making the indescribable reward of finishing appealing to potential consumers of the VMI experience. My English major brain was absolutely thrilled with the opportunity, and I wrote an article (attached below) that is posted on the site, and it generated even more questions from prospective cadets.

Highlighted in this reflection of my work this semester are only a few of the many things I learned in the office. All the while, I had fun doing it, completing exciting assignments such as a shooting a track meet, FTX, breakout, and filming the baseball game. I would not have been able to learn so much if it were not for all of the incredibly nice and helpful people in the office, who didn’t treat me as just an intern, but also as a team member who had the ability to support the mission. This is an experience that I believe has prepared me for a job in the real world, and I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity.

 

InsideVMI “The Rat Year: A Student’s Perspective” post

Incoming and prospective cadets,

About three years ago, I was sitting in the same shoes as you—unsure if I had made the right decision by choosing to take the road less traveled, or “buckling on my boots and spurs” and coming to VMI. Though excited to start the next chapter in my life, I was anxious, nervous and even scared about the challenges that lay ahead. While all my friends were getting ready to attend what my brother rats and I sometimes refer to as “13th”grade, or the freshman year at schools such as Virginia Tech and UVa, I began running and doing push-ups to prepare for matriculation.

As you transition from your well-established and comfortable positions as seniors in high school to confused freshman overwhelmed by a new way of life, some butterflies and nerves are normal in the summer leading up to college.

When matriculation day finally started, after saying goodbye to my parents and siblings, my fear of the unexpected went away pretty quickly as the ratline started. From there, there were just too many things to learn for nerves. I quickly picked up that listening and learning fast were my most useful skills. The first week at VMI was pretty hard for me—there was a lot of yelling, getting things wrong, and working out. But after a few days, I realized that it wasn’t so hard after all. Like I was expecting, matriculation week wasn’t anything fun, but I the feelings of anxiety I had been experiencing in the summer were gone, because I realized that I could make it through. As long as I gave my full effort and did what I was told, matriculation week moved along and before I knew it, it was over.

They say that matriculation week is like a sprint and the ratline is like a marathon. Well, matriculation week gave me the training to complete a marathon. I now had my Dyke, or senior mentor, who was there to guide me through all the confusion of essentially not knowing how to do anything at VMI. Even more importantly, I had roommates who were in the exact same position as me and were with me every step of the way as we figured out how to succeed in the ratline. Every step wasn’t bad though—as my brother rats and I took our situations with a good sense of humor, and some of the most hilarious conversations of my life happened in my rat room.

What I wish I knew the summer before my rat year at VMI is the only thing I had to fear was the amount of effort I would put into the ratline. The ratline isn’t designed to weed people out or make you quit. It is challenging, but it is designed to make you a better and stronger person. Everything in life worth something is hard to accomplish. And VMI is well worth accomplishing. Everyday of my life I benefit from my experience at VMI, whether it be connections, friendships, work ethic, resilience, fitness or many others. All you need to do this summer is get in shape and tell yourself you won’t quit. As Robert Schuller said, “Tough times never last, but tough people do.”