By Katie Pylipow
“I get to go to Australia tomorrow,” I thought to myself as I sat with my mom on the couch in our North Carolina home. We were reading over an email with instructions for my first day of what would be a two-month internship at Tonic PR. We giggled when we read that the team did yoga every week – I wondered if I would embarrass myself trying to be as flexible as them.
After touching down in the “land down under” and navigating an unfamiliar public transport system, I arrived for my first day at Tonic PR, nervous and excited. The next seven hours were a blur of meeting the team, learning new computer systems and trying to wrap my head around PR and Aussie lingo.
As the week continued, I settled in and started to feel more comfortable with my new working environment thanks to the guidance of my new colleagues. They talked me through tasks I was unfamiliar with and helped me adapt to some of the differences between Australian and American work culture. I luckily didn’t make a fool of myself at weekly yoga.
It didn’t take me long to realise that the Tonic team puts an emphasis on learning and education. I was constantly learning new things. For example, we worked on monthly presentations to improve our public speaking skills and to educate the team on something we’d worked on that month. During my first week, I gave a presentation on sororities and fraternities – something that interested my colleagues greatly. My 10-minute presentation turned into 30 minutes of eager questions about sorority life and how it compares to its portrayal in movies. At the end of my presentation, I realised that I didn’t feel like the new intern anymore – I felt part of the team.
In the next few weeks, I worked on media releases, social media photo shoots and media matrixes. I sat down with my boss, Allira, and planned what I’d be learning during my time at Tonic. About halfway through my internship, I had the opportunity to attend my first client event. My co-worker and I spent the night learning about whisky and meeting journalists I’d spent the past month emailing. When I saw the results of my research and pitching at the event, I knew my hard work had paid off.
During my final month at Tonic, I began to manage press clippings. To see the stories I’d been pitching become tangible published articles was extremely satisfying. They were proof that the work I was doing was contributing directly to Tonic PR and its clients’ success.
I dreaded my impending departure as my time at Tonic began to wind down. As I reflected on my internship, I thought about how much I had learnt over only two months. I also realised how much I would miss the Tonic team. They helped me evolve from a nervous intern into a confident member of the team. I have never felt more prepared or excited to graduate university and enter the PR workforce.
Thank you, Team Tonic, for giving me the experience of a lifetime.