Alfonso Madrigal

Class of 2018
Major: Communication Studies / Minor: Public Relations
Position:
Community Outreach Intern/ The Long Beach College Promise

1. How did you apply for this internship?

I applied to this internship from an email that I received from Michelle Chang who is in charge of helping students get internships! She is a great resource and a very understanding person.

2. What were your daily tasks?

– Check social media for trends
– Look for articles about the organization and research resources that might benefit our target audience (the Long Beach community)
– S.W.O.T. analysis biweekly
– Develop a content calendar
-Utilize social media tools such as TweetReach, Social Mention, Hootsuite to manage and keep track of our social media engagement
– Create social media content for future dates (holidays, deadlines like FAFSA, college applications, etc.)
– Research what events were going on locally to attend and get our organization’s name out in the community

3. What skills were needed for this position? And do you think CSULB prepared you for it?

Social Media Skills
AP Style
Research Skills
Photoshop skills
Interpersonal skills
Basic understanding of PR

I feel like the courses I took during my time as an undergraduate helped me achieve success in this internship. For example, Professor Teresa Puente at CSULB offers a class on social media and she really outlines the tools that can be used in an internship that requires social media experience. Professor Newton’s classes also helped me prepare for these internships because her courses helped me understand the cycle of PR and how to avoid doing a bad PR campaign. She also taught me how to utilize external resources through the use of partnerships for certain campaigns that would stand out compared to others because of her amazing guest speakers.

4. What was the highlight of your internship?

The highlight of my career was when I started to make our social media more fun and engaging as opposed to retweeting only articles. I started implementing more GIF’s and memes to effectively reach our target audience with our intended message. I received an email from my supervisor for my first GIF use and she said that I did a great job because our engagement went from nothing to having people like and retweet our content.

5. How do you think this internship benefited your career?

This internship has benefited my career because I am currently in the police academy and this internship helped me become an effective public speaker and allowed me to interact with a diverse audience.