By Braylyn Bruno, English and Public Relations Major / McAnulty Academic Internship
One of my biggest insecurities as a strategic public relations and advertising major is that I am not required to take many advertising-based courses as a student on the PR track. While this is a blessing to me because I know I don’t thrive in this area, it is also a curse for the very same reason. The public relations industry is merging with graphic design and advertisement, and jobs in PR often require skills beyond my studies. As the industry shifts in this direction, it is important that I find a way to learn basic design skills, so that I don’t enter the job market with absolutely no idea how to use any design programs.
Luckily for me, this internship has surprised me with new skills I have acquired related to graphic design. As I continue to run campaigns on Instagram, I can see the progress in the graphics I prepare. I have been using Canva to create Instagram stories and designs that fit the needs of each post and campaign. As I spend more time exploring this program, I am becoming confident in the works I produce. I believe this confidence and progress is visible when examining the campaign designs I started with this semester and the ones I am developing now. Not only am I understanding design qualities, but I am beginning to understand what makes an advertisement appealing for my brand.
This past week in one of my public relations courses, we were tasked with creating an advertisement. The instructions contained words related to advertising that I had never heard before, and terms I could not understand. However, the experience I have had with Canva during this internship made the words “I got this” pop into my head.
The great thing about this internship is how it compliments my PR major wonderfully and is truly preparing me for the real world. Last week I talked about how this internship is a learning experience and is teaching me new things. I continue to share this thought as we progress through the semester, and I continue to gain not only experience, but confidence as well. Even if I was an expert in graphic design and advertising, that wouldn’t get me anywhere in life if I wasn’t confident in those abilities. The fact that I see improvement and can do a side-by-side comparison of my graphic design work shows me that this internship is already a success.
Building Bridges 