“Every single one of you is here for a reason this summer: to use your gifts to make a difference for God’s …
Does the job field for writing seem restricted? It might seem that way, but it isn’t. Use these job and internship stories to explore everything the writing field has to offer!
One of the definitions of the word create is “to produce or bring about by a course of action or behavior…to produce …
Graduation looms a few months in my future. Like a swarm of vultures circling a carcass, people shriek the daunting question from …
“If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life.” I’d heard this quote a million times but never felt like applied to me. I lived with the fear that I wasn’t on the path to doing what I loved. After many mental breakdowns, four major changes, and a lot of creative projects that I’m proud of, I’m happy to say that in three weeks I will graduate and find a job where I can do what I love and never have to work a day in my life. All because of PWID.
When I first came into PWID, the whole internship process seemed mystical, terrifying, and like a very “grown up” thing to do for someone who wasn’t even sure she was on the right career path. I kind of looked forward to it, because it sounded like something that would make me feel like a real professional and help me grow my skills, but I was mostly filled with a sense of dread—how would I find an internship? Would I like it? Would my classes truly prepare me for the experience?
Naomi Leak is a 2018 Professional Writing and Information Design graduate. She recently started working for Sparkbox, a web design and development company located in Dayton, Ohio. In this interview with Naomi, she describes her position as Communication Specialist and explains how she landed the job. She also offers advice for current PWID students who are preparing for internships and full-time jobs after graduation.
People always talk about “doing what you love” or “finding your passion.” Poetic and valid, yes, but the process is not exactly one-size-fits-all. You can’t discover your passion from a Google search. I came to Cedarville undeclared—I had no idea what to do with myself. I wasn’t overly worried, but I was on the edge of my proverbial seat, waiting for what the next chapter in my story might be about. Turns out, the Lord wrote it better than I ever could have.
As a freshman, I thought that I was sentenced to scrubbing dishes in the dining hall for my next four years at Cedarville. I listened to upper-level Professional Writing and Information Design students talk about client projects and job offers from organizations. I knew that an internship would eventually come, but I had no idea where to start.
I made significant progress, yet I ended up back where I started. How is that possible? In the fall of 2000, when I stepped on the Cedarville University campus as a freshman for Getting Started weekend, my parents made me get my picture taken with the campus mascot, known as “the bee”, because I was too nervous and embarrassed. I was uncovering my interests and gaining my footing as a young, independent adult.
“Are you still interested in serving with Samaritan’s Purse? And are you willing to go to our office in Canada?” I had no idea Samaritan’s Purse even had an office in Canada and no clue what my position would be if I accepted the internship offer.
It was my sophomore year, and the first day of a class called Professional Portfolio Development. The professor informed us that we would be participating in mock interviews: first with our fellow classmates, then with some of PWID’s board members, both on the phone and in person. I was 17 years old. I had only ever worked online, aside from my job at a bakery. I felt about as inexperienced as one could be.
My editing internship at an economics office this summer required that I dabble in free market philosophy. I had been trying to read one meaty article, scratching through the pages with underlines and question marks and brief abstractions of the text. But what I found at the end of this scholarly essay was a line of music, of rhythm, timbre, pitch.
In that moment as I stood in front of my professor, I knew I was over-committing. He offered me the opportunity to work on a professional client project. This specific client was the nursing department at Cedarville University, and I would be creating a template for their quarterly newsletter.