Family in town

I am behind in my blog posts but I am going to still continue to write them in chronological order. This story is going to be from the second to last week of February.

My grandpa, his girlfriend, and my two cousins had plans to go to DisneyWorld that just so happen to be during my program. My grandpa knowing this wanted me to be involved in the entire trip. I was lucky enough to get four days off to spend that time with them. It felt like I was on vacation. Even though I live at Disney, it is just 100 times more fun when I am there with family because they are a part of making the memories. I was on cloud nine. I was so happy. We did all the rides, my grandpa bought us the fast passes so we were able to do everything and I truly enjoyed my time with them. I got to stay at a super nice resort with them called Animal Kingdom Lodge which was so beautiful. It was nice to get out of my apartment and feel like I was on a trip with my family, even though I live there.

On the third day of the trip my grandpa realized that my cousins didn’t have to go back to school for another two days so he extended their trip by an extra day. He moved their flights, got a new hotel, and bought tickets to universal studios. He asked if I wanted to join them which of course I did. It took a long time for me to get my shift covered but luckily I did. It was literally the day before Universal that I had to Uber to the resort that I work at, go into the office, fill out the paper for someone to cover my shift, then I took a bus to Hollywood Studios to meet up with my family. Thank goodness for the guy who covered my shift or else I would’ve had to go from Universal and Uber to work which would’ve not been as fun. I was so grateful to get the day off so I had a stress free time with my family there. It was blast and we had so much fun. My grandpa got us the express VIP pass so we walked onto every single ride which was amazing. We didn’t wait in a single line. We ate such good food and made so many memories. I was really sad when they left but it was great having that time with some familiar faces as I haven’t seen any of my family in months.

Put a Bird On It

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This week I went to Harris House on Tuesday to help with the “Put a Bird on It” event. To recap, Bethany received a grant that is allowing her to put together a bird mobile with the help of the community and bring awareness to the native birds. This day specifically she had two people from the autobahn society come to speak on scrub jays and barred owls. I honestly really enjoyed learning about these birds a bit. I discovered barred owls only ever travel about 6 miles from where they are hatched and scrub jays look similar to blue jays, but are larger and behave differently. Everyone used paint pens to color one of those two birds Bethany and I had previously traced and cut out of fiber glass. Everyone’s turned out so well, I think the final project will look great.

On Wednesday, I went back to help at the Beachside Center for Rehabilitation. We had a group of elderly patients and gave them a picture of reference to water color paint. Some struggle more than others, so I sat beside a woman and helped her throughout. She seemed to have adequate motor skills but was struggling cognitively, so she stuck to painting on top of the picture that was already printed out instead of the blank page. I gently encouraged her and helped remember what color she was using and what she could do next. At one point, she seemed to be giving up but I helped figure out what else she could add. She seemed happy with her picture by the end and everyone gave positive feedback about her piece. It was really great to see how being able to bring even just a few minutes of happiness to these patients made such a difference. 

I went back to Harris House on Thursday to help paint the rods we will be using to hang the bird mobile and spray sealant on the rods/birds. We also brainstormed some about the teen center I had researched activities for previously (it’s called “Me in Progress). I gave her some of my ideas and she particularly liked the idea of a mural everyone could work on together, so we are going to continue to think of what we could do. Bethany also let me know that her grant for the Center for the Blind project got approved which is very exciting. She said the projects will cover multiple 4ftx8ft spaces on the walls. This project won’t come together for awhile, but both of us are looking forward to how it will turn out. 

Week of March 27-April 2

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Sorry this entry is posted late, I meant to have it up a few days ago but the past week was incredibly busy with other assignments. Regardless, on Tuesday, I helped set up for a big fundraiser ACA has every year called “Horsin’ Around.” The fundraiser takes place at main campus and involves both silent and live auctioning of experiences and artwork. I specifically helped set up a bunch of jewelry and wearable art on a table using stands and place cards. I had to clean off the stands before we could use them which took awhile, but everything looked great at the end. 

The event itself took place on Sunday so I showed up then to help as well. When I got there, I was immediately put to work helping people park. They have a lot of parking, but there were SO many people at the fundraiser that all the lots filled up and people ended up having to park on the street. I got a chance to check out some of the other work that was being auctioned and there were some really amazing pieces. My favorite was a picture of a lighthouse in the night, but the whole landscape was a very beautiful purple and it was placed in a gold frame that really brought out the colors. After we took a break, I helped Bethany some more by clearing glasses off of tables and cleaning up around the area. We also got a chance to hear some of the auction process, which was impressive. The people who come to the fundraiser are very willing to give a lot of money to the organization (especially when they’ve had a few drinks). I know Bethany is relieved to have another major event done, but now we are looking ahead to the arts and wellness academy coming up! 

Internship to Full-Time!

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It’s been super busy over here at Details! In the past week or so, I have been slammed with projects and other assignments, and have also been officially offered (and have accepted! yay!) a full-time position with the company after graduation! 

Now that I am on track to being a full-time employee, there are definitely much more things being tossed my way… including projects that will expand over the course of a few months. I have continued with my daily tasks that include answering any calls that come in, creating and sending out marketing emails and graphics, partially running the social media, etc. 

Additionally, I have been doing quite a bit of research into SEMRush and SEO so we can be more keyword focused with our marketing these next few months as the busy season slows down. A major thing I have noticed in the past week, is I am now told something in a brief spur of the moment conversation and expected to make sure it gets done. I feel as though earlier on in the internship, we had lists of tasks, emails asking us to complete assignments, etc – whereas now, one sentence may be directed my way during a meeting with an “oh hey Olivia can you make sure that gets done” and you bet your bottom dollar that better be done ASAP! It took me a bit to get used to, but am making sure to take notes and really double check EVERYTHING!

Overall, I am extremely satisfied with everything! The team here is amazing and three months ago I was not at all expecting a full-time position to come out of this experience and I could not be more excited and grateful! One thing I am especially looking forward to is the travel that comes along with the role (my first work trip hopefully in June to Miami)! The team travels to several conferences/events each month and in Miami, a few of the girls are going to be taking a trip down to visit one of our favorite partners/wholesalers to tour their offices and catch up with their team! 

WFAE Conference Week

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Last week was super busy! I helped set up for the World Forum of Acoustic Ecology conference and help with tasks while it was going on. On Tuesday, I helped Dr. Wolek and other students set up a few of the rooms to prepare for exhibitions. Each room required a lot of wiring and although I wasn’t sure how it all worked, I was impressed with the team for understanding how to hook up all of the equipment. Every room needed speakers as well as other electronic equipment such as TVs or audio files and computers. It took way longer than I thought, I was there for about 5 hours and we set up 3 rooms in that time. It definitely gave me an appreciation for even hooking up cables properly haha. I also learned a great tip; leaving a black cord out in the sunlight will soften it enough to pull it straight and achieve a cleaner look. I’m glad that we were able to help the center with all of that so they did not have to deal with it on their own.

On Thursday, I went back and helped Bethany with some miscellaneous tasks such as taking attendees to their room and making sure the cafeteria was clean. I was also able to sit in on a conversation between two attendees who were discussing the dichotomy between the natural earth and technology and whether technology actually influences nature as much as nature influences technology. It was great to hear these interesting points of view that I hadn’t thought about previously. I wish I could have attended some of the conference segments myself, but last week was extremely busy (I had multiple essays, a quiz, and presentation, and some assignments all due) so I couldn’t stay longer than necessary.

Then, I came again on Saturday for nature sketch club. We had about 4 people come to sketch and it was a very beautiful day to sit outside. I worked on my stippling technique through drawing a large oak tree. I also ran into Professor Underriner who was setting up speakers for an event that evening and got to introduce myself (I took his wife’s ceramics class last semester).

Overall, this was definitely a busy week but I was incredibly glad I could help out and that the conference went well for everyone 🙂

Week 10

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This past week has been pretty uneventful, my two bosses have gone on a small hiatus for their podcast so I have been creating the content for Friday videos. This has given me more practice on creating the videos and narrowing down what gets the most views.

My past few videos have done really well view wise on Tik Tok and a few have done really well on Instagram. For some reason the views usually do better on Instagram because I have found that the algorithm for TikTok is very particular with what gets more views. I found that the best way to get the most views for TikTok is having the right hashtags.

This internship has really helped me realize how much I like working with social media and all the logistics that go into making a post. Having access to an account that has a big following and seeing the side of an account that I have never seen is really interesting.

Research and Painting

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Last week, Bethany was gone on vacation so she gave me a couple things to research. I spent my free time looking up ideas for activities to do with teens that involve both art and exercise and options to put trail signs at the Doris Leeper Trails near New Smyrna.

For the first part, Bethany told me that there is some sort of recreational center being built in the area that will offer teens a place to hang out after school and offer resources. She is hoping to set up some sort of workshop with them at some point that not only includes art, but also exercise since that is a big part of wellness, especially for teens. Some ideas I came up with to share with her are to take a walk around the area and sketch what everyone sees, a game where students have markers accessible at different parts of the room to draw and once music stops or a while blows, they run to find a new location or different marker, and alternating physical activities with small art projects. I’m not exactly what direction she wants to go with this, so I’ll show her my ideas and see what she likes.

In terms of the trails, this is a more complicated situation. Basically, the founder of the trails is also the founder of ACA so they are connected. The trails do not have good signage and it’s easy to get lost (plus there’s no service to look up directions). I tried to look up criteria for trail signs, examples of ones in other locations, and found information about these specific trails online that could be used on signs. 

We also hosted the Spotlight workshop on Saturday. This week was a small turnout, likely due to spring break. We discussed Brice Marden, who is a minimalist abstract artist. Some of the paintings we observed by him included grey, dull backgrounds with brights lines curving around the page. Bethany discussed the paintings and the idea of abstract minimalism before turning things over to the group. While there is always a theme, Bethany makes sure to let everyone know they have creative freedom when it comes to their art and everyone is welcome to take a different direction. I personally took the central idea but did not try to imitate the artist in my painting. I was able to have conversations with a few different people about my major and how I’ve been able to pick the classes that best suit the direction I want to go. 

Calm in the Chaos

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The past week and a half have been calmer than the previous weeks. Our CEO has been out of the office for nearly two weeks now, visiting top florists in Greece, and now in Washington, DC for the Congressional Actions Days. 

With that being said, a lot of prep work goes into her being out of office. I had to create drive folders for each event/conference she attended. I pre-planned several captions and had outlines of what we would post after each event.  

These past few days have entailed lots of Support calls with new customers that have joined via March conferences, many blog writeups (social media tips and tricks, webinar recaps, masterclass recaps, etc), lots of graphics created for the blogs, meetings with the team, and a few more fun reels than what we usually do! My favorite blog to create this month was from complete scratch and entailed researching all about social media in the floral/horticulture industry. And as someone who also works a lot with different social media platforms – I found it to be extremely useful to be assigned this blog.

Additionally this week, I was asked to design a new banner for our table when we got to Career Expos at Universities. This was a rather daunting task, as it’s the main centerpiece that people will see when approaching the table. I created several drafts, before sending them off for first approvals. My first drafts were highly praised and just critiqued with finding a more gender-neutral color scheme. My final draft was approved today, and will now be sent off to be printed! It’s one thing to create graphics for the website, social media, and even blogs, however, to be able to see physical designs come to life always boosts your confidence a little more than usual!

Last Two Weeks of Internship

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These past two weeks of my internship have been really good, being able to continue to get in the swing of creating content has been really fun. My favorite part of this internship has been seeing how the videos do view-wise, overall videos usually do better on Instagram than on TikTok. I have had some videos that do equally well on both and it is just interesting to see how certain topics get a better turn out for views.

I chose to continue my posts during spring break as I decided to just keep posting as it luckily doesn’t take too much time out of my day to make the videos and create the Twitter and Facebook posts. Now that I dont have to worry about my senior project, I will have a little less stress on my shoulders which I am very thankful for.

Having this internship has really helped me learn how to make the right captions for social media and practicing my time management with other things going on in my life. This past week has been kind of rough with some health news about family but having this internship allows me to not think about it and continue my hard work.

Seventh Week Of Internship

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This week of internship for the Men’s Basketball team of Stetson University was different than most for me. This week my boss Joey had texted me and informed me the coaches wanted to make a historical season graphic highlighting the accomplishments of this year’s team, as well as providing me with a reference graphic that they wanted me to base my post off of. Despite having an image to base my work off of, this task still proved to be quite demanding as I had to meticulously place and crop each player flawlessly as well as head coach Donnie Jones. After about a dozen hours of cropping, using camera raw filter, effects , and rearranging the composition of the scene, in which I still had to delegate with my boss Joey which elements he thinks we should remove or add at this point. After some back and forth, Joey and I landed on a result that we were both happy with, and the graphic now just needs the approval of the coaching staff, as well as the green light from coach Donnie as well as Joey to finally be uploaded to the team’s social media accounts. This week was a combination of my first week back to school as well as a part of my spring break free time, and I think that working on a graphic this far in advance had definitely had a positive effect on the result I ended up producing. I will continue to try to ask my boss what graphic he will need in the coming weeks to ensure I don’t get blindsided by a large amount of tasks.

Putting your skills to work.