My internship is with the University of Oklahoma in Arezzo, also known as OUA. It is a branch of the University of Oklahoma located in Arezzo, Italy, in the Tuscany region, about an hour from Florence and two and a half from Rome. I will be completing the OU in Arezzo Marketing and Media internship. As their intern, I will be focusing on their social media and helping local students from the University of Siena, Arezzo (UNISI), create content and review it. They currently have six ways to reach students via social media; Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Spotify, and their own OUA Blog. Not only will I be creating some of my content, but I will also be overseeing the content that the UNISI interns create. This will be by checking their English, grammar and help them come up with ideas for different social media platforms. I have previously completed a part of this internship. In spring 2020, I had the opportunity to have this same internship with OUA. Coming the first time, this internship was my first, but I was interested in working with social media. It allowed me to get experience that I could use while finishing my degree. Still, it also allowed me to see how to use social media for a business within higher education compared to running a personal Instagram. Previously (Spring 2020), my job was somewhat similar; creating content and running social media. Towards the end, I was able to help create what is now the new OUA Blog. I helped create its outline and give ideas to make it more student, parent, and faculty-friendly than just a student-run blog. This allowed them to help look at the future of this program. And how they wanted to communicate to those outside of prospective students and alumni of this program. Deciding to return, having an internship held a big part in my decision. I wanted to challenge myself with a new internship with an Italian brand or come back to this one where I would still hopefully challenge myself and help them find new ways to connect with students, parents, and alumni. I wanted to focus on areas that are working for OUA and areas of improvement. Before coming back, I completed my capstone class, our client being OU in Arezzo. This allowed me to do a deep dive into OUA as a whole and piece by piece to help them increase enrollment. Getting to do the internship in Spring 2020, completing my capstone that focused on OUA, and returning to have my internship again be OUA feels like I am finishing things full circle. It has allowed me to see OUA as a program in different lights and where I can see them going for the future and hopefully get to be a part of it. My goals for this internship are to focus more on communicating with my supervisor, creating content that helps grow our numbers and challenge myself to assist the UNISI interns. I know that I find comfort in having this internship before, so I know that I am capable of completing it and helping where I can, and taking more initiative. I can see the challenges will be more on promptly creating content- I will nitpick a piece of content until I think it is perfect. However, the downside of social media is that the turnaround time for when to post and how far it is too far after something to post can be tricky. For example, I would view it as when we go on a weekend trip- post about it within three to four days after. This internship challenges me because there are technically no rules to social media; we can do whatever we want (in the sense that it is what we want to post and do). When I look at how OUA views social media, it might work to wait a bit then post something that we know will generate a good amount of likes and views compared to rushing something. I've also noticed a significant change in how they have done things on social media; it seems to be fewer long posts, which is easier for the viewer and focuses more on engaging with those who follow us. This is a good way to use social media, but I hope to challenge myself and those I work with to make everything we post have the same amount of views and likes. *The content of this website is mine alone and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Univeristy of Oklahoma, OU in Arezzo or any affiliated entity*
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AuthorMy name is Torey Henderson, I will be graduating the University of Oklahoma in December 2021. I am currently studying abroad in Arezzo, Italy with the University of Oklahoma and blogging my internship expierence! |