And here it comes to an END!

Hello there everyone, Hope everyone have their great time of interning! This is my last blog for my internship as I have already completed my internship.

Firstly, I would like to say thanks to every single person that helps me and assisted me throughout this internship. It was an incredible experience that actually open my eyes to the real world. Before the internship, working is really a "mystery" thing I would say because I have a lot of different thoughts and imagination about it on how will it be. However, I have this opportunity to start an internship officially and this is when I really have an image in my brand on how the working world are. I have gain a lot of different experiences from the internship and assistance by my supervisor, Ms Marcella and my lecturer, Dr Kamala.

During my internship period, I have be involved in various events and tasks. These jobs of mine has grow me up to a better person that is more prepared for the industry. Jobs that has been done is listed below:

1)Media Clipping:

- Media monitoring for the organisation so that news and updates about the university itself and the industry will be known all the time.

2)Event Photography:

-Taking photographs of events happening in the campus which will mostly use for media release purposes

3)Media Releases

- Using techniques learnt in PR Technique units and other PR units to write media releases about any events from campaign to promotion of senior management staff

4)Interviews:

- Interviewing with different person like students with techniques and skills learn from all the classes and videos shown in classes. Information obtained will mostly used to be input of media releases.

Below are something that I have learn from the internship experience and which I think will be useful for any other interns and students.

1) Be Initiative

- In nowadays working environment, people that talks are the one that always being chosen because they dare to try and look for more things to accomplish. Especially for us as an future PR Practitioner, we should be more daring to start or talk something so people will be able to see the value of PR.

2)Take up challenges

-The reason I think everyone should be having their internship before they graduating from university or college is because interns can survive with failure or even getting better with it. The reason is because as an intern, people around are urge to teach you and leads you and you have an obligation to learn. Therefore, interns should always take up challenges that you will not do normally do it.

3)Be efficient

-Time is not just money but everything for every company because everyone in this world only has 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Therefore, who got employees that can use it more efficient that the others, they got the competitive advantages among all others. Especially for the PR industry which is always up to all kind of cases and events, time is even more precious than ever. Internship will be the greatest time for you to practice it and stay out of your comfort zone forever.

Lastly, I will like to thanks the unit for giving me opportunity to get closer to the real world. Besides, i would like to wish all the interns enjoy and learn the most from you internship experience.

Featured Article done during internship

Media release that is done has being posted to Curtin Sarawak's media room with the amendment done by supervisor, Ms Marcella

Above are some of the works I have done during the internship. Hope my blog will give some of you some idea about being an intern and working in the PR field.

Best Regards,

Stevenson Tan 

17635907/7E3A1836

Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia

Definitely it's not THE END!

Hello everyone, 

Hope you guys are enjoying your Internship and gaining valuable experience as well. My internship has came to an end, but it has definitely prepare me to a more challenging working life! 

I would like to thanks to PR Internship this unit which has pushed me from my comfort zone. This internship has made me grown up a lot and get to experience the life of a PR Officer. Besides, I have found my personalities and abilities during the placement based on the jobs that have been assigned by the supervisor. This enables me to choose the job that I am more suitable based on my strengths and abilities. 

Below is the summarize of the jobs that I have put to practice in my PR Internship. 

• Events: Planning activities for the visitors (from primary schools, secondary schools) by using Event Plan. 
• Press release: Using the Inverted pyramid format to write a media release and ensure the release is easy to understand by others. 
• Media clipping: Cut out all the press releases about Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri,the competitors and also the industry that its operate in. 
• Design notices: Design and put up the notices about the event to inform public

Some useful tips for those who are still doing your Internship:

• Say YES to everything. If we are asked to do things during placement, grab the opportunity and help them. It is because this is the chance for us to learn the things which we do not know. Besides, this attitude will also show that we are enthusiastic in our work and we are willing to learn new things. 
• Learn from the mistakes. Do not get upset or disappoint when we make mistakes. It is because everyone make mistakes as long as we learn from the mistakes and do not repeat it again in the future. 
• Be professional. We should be professional no matter in our dress code or works. As a PR Practitioner, the first impression is very important. Thus, we should dress professionally and neatly in order to create a good impression to our boss or the clients. In addition, when we come to work, we should not keep on playing our mobile phones. 
• Be punctual. It is important to reach the office early. When we have the habit to be punctual during placement, we will definitely have the same attitude when we go out to work. 

Lastly, This internship has opened my mind and eyes on how big the world of PR is and also the powerful of PR. I have noted down all the valuable experiences that I have gained throughout the journey and also the important lessons that have taught by Ms. Sofina. 

Group photo with my supervisor, Ms.Sofina (standing 2nd from the left) and my intern friends

I believe this is not an end, it will be a new beginning for me to explore deeper into the PR world. 

Good luck with the report guys! 

Best regards, 

Daphney Koh, 

17635884, 

Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia. 

Being in the tense but extremely efficient meeting

Curtin Sarawak Open Day on 8 October 2016

For an university student, having meetings is very normal. For example, club meeting, event meetings and lots of assignment meetings but this time is a really different kind of meeting for me which is so tense and so efficient. I attended this weekly meeting for one of the Curtin Sarawak's biggest event annually which is for the Curtin Sarawak Open Day. In this meeting, I am just an observer but it really open my eyes to something real.

Normally, we used to create stuff and brainstorms ideas only during meeting so it takes hours and hours to get task done or even not completing some tasks. After attending some of these serious meetings I found out why. The reason that always makes thing fail in meeting is that we do not usually be prepare for the meeting and we do not complete our task before the meeting. In this meeting, it includes people from different departments includes Corporate Communication department, Marketing department, Finance Department, different faculties and more but it normally only takes less than 2 hours to complete everything or sometime even took only 1 hour to finish everything.

For such an big event, it only use this short period of time to complete the meeting and this is able to show how efficient the meeting is. People that came here are always with their own printed meeting agenda and have their task being distributed in last meeting done. Therefore, their task in the meeting is only to ask for decision with option prepare or even just report the progress of their task. This meeting really give me an eyes open experience and I realised this is what a meeting should be like and really have to learn from it. 

The meeting is always tense and never have a minute that is wasted because everyone have their own job other than this meeting so everyone is very participative and brave to speak out all their problems and ideas. Most importantly, there is always a person that remind the time and to ensure the meeting is going on accordingly to the meeting agenda prepared.

This is one of the best advantage of doing an internship during our university life so that we can actually see what in the business world is going on and what should we change and do to make sure that we are fully prepared for the challenging future.

Hope that there is more meetings and events for me to be involved so that I can be at my best condition when I am going into the workforce soon. Best of luck to all the audiences :)

Best regards,

Stevenson Tan Jin Heng

17635907
BoC (PR & Marketing)

Curtin University

What I have learnt on holding an exhibition ALONE!

Hello guys, I have been doing my internship at Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri for almost 1.5 months. Throughout the journey, I have gained a lot of working experiences and some technical skills such as Photoshop which might be useful for my future career. I have learnt another software, Canva for designing purposes in the university but not Photoshop. I was glad that I have the chance to explore another software during my placement. It is good to know how to use different types of software. As a PR Professional, I should not only know how to write (media release or speech), but also need to know how to design (poster, flyer, banner) as well. Below are the examples of the notices that I have designed to promote the events that organized by Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri.

On the first day of my internship, Ms. Sofina has told me I will need to carry out my own event before I end up my internship. It can be publicizing Pustaka or organizing any events that held at Pustaka. I decided to publicize Pustaka because one of the PR jobs is publicizing the brand to the target audience. I have used a couple of days to figure out what event should I do to publicize Pustaka. I have few options in my mind but when I think of I am the only person to do the event I became nervous. At last, I have an idea - do an exhibition at Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia. 

I have shared my idea with Ms. Sofina and she agreed on it. She said that it was a fresh idea as none of the interns ever hold an exhibition at Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia. I started to write a proposal about the exhibition to Ms. Sofina as she needed to submit to the Regional Manager for approval.

Once my proposal has been approved, I started to design the information that will need to share with the students. Then, I called up the staff of Curtin Library to seek for their approval to use their exhibition board to promote Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri. In the phone, they have told me the details and I decided to write them a formal letter to show my sincerity. 1 week later, my information has been put up at the exhibition board.

Although I done everything by myself, I have gained experiences and learnt somethings which I have never learnt before. For example, I get to communicate with different people. I got the chance to communicate with the Curtin Library staff and the manager who were Ms. Marina and Mr. Mac. I would like to thank to PR Internship has gave me the chance to meet them. I have been in Curtin University for almost 4 years and I have never met them before. Due to this internship, I have met them and get to know them. This is where I started to build my network.

I have also built up my confident. As I mentioned earlier,  I will need to talk to the students and approached them to tell them the benefits as a registered member of Pustaka. It took me a big courage to spoke to the strangers. However, I have gone through the hardships and have built up self-confident. It is important to have self-confident because as a PR people, we tend to speak to the strangers and VIPs and even present in front of many people.

Hope you guys enjoy the internship!

Regards,

Daphney Koh

17635884

Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia.

The usefulness of Event Plan!

Hey guys, I am back again! Hope everyone is doing well in the Internship and have gained some experiences.

I have been busying in preparing activities for the children from Tadika Sedidik Miri. They visited Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri few days ago. I have been assigned to participate in this event for organizing some activities for the children. As the target audience was children, so I will need to figure some activities that the kids will really enjoy and love it.

In order to make the event go smoothly and successfully, I have used EVENT PLAN to prepare for this event. I learnt the format of event plan during Public Relations Techniques unit. I would say Event Plan is really useful when we are planning an event.

It is useful because it ensure that I am on the right track. As we need to write the event objective in the event plan, thus it has reminded me that every activities that I have planned should consistent with the event objective and the target audience. For example, the event objective was to promote Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri to the children. Therefore, I have suggested the event to be conducted at the Auditorium. It was because it not only can help to promote the Auditorium of Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri and it also has a huge space to carry out some activities. The activities that have carried out were bringing the children for a tour, telephone game and singing session. Telephone game is a game which the first person will be given a piece of paper that consisted of an animal. Based on their understanding, they will need to act to their friends behind them. Then, the message will pass from one to another and the last person will need to stand up and say the animal out.

Besides, it helps to reduce the risk of having an unsuccessful event. It is because I will need to think of the risk assessment and back-up plan. Thus, by having an event plan I could list down any possible risks that might happen and try to avoid it when I am preparing for the event.

In addition, event plan also helps to ensure the person that responsible for the tasks will be finished in the given time. In the event plan, we need to draw a table which consists of few elements such as person responsible, actions and date to be completed. Therefore, this has provided a clear instruction that the person responsible will need to finish his/her tasks within the given time. By having this table, it can help to increase the efficiency and effectiveness.

Now, lets see pictures! :)

Kids group photo when they were just arrived at Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri

First activity: Tour at Multimedia Galeri (MMG)

 When they were at Children Infotheque

Second activity: Telephone game

Third activity: Singing session ( They were so happy when the "twinkle twinkle little star" music was playing)

Group Photo 

Lastly, I am glad that an event plan has made the event went successfully and I feel happy when I saw the children enjoyed the activities. Although I have met hardships when I was planning for the activities, I gone through it and I have gained a lot of experiences which I never had it. I would say that it has made me to be a better person in handling the event or activity in the future. An advice to my peers, I strongly recommend you guys to utilize the event plan when you are planning for an event or activity during your internship or in your future career. 

All the best! 

Regards, 

Daphney Koh

17635884

Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia. 

Meeting up with press must be efficient for every single second

Hello everyone! Hope everyone is doing well! This is my second blog about my PR Internship and it is about some of the event that I participated in and helped out a little bit. Really just a little bit.

The first event that I am going to talk about is the Orientation Week for 2016 Semester 2. My task in this Orientation Week is to take some photographs of it and do few short interview for media release purposes.

This is my first photography job for the internship and I am so lucky that I had get into photography few years ago so it allow me to do the job easier and faster. My task is basically taking some action shots of the event and also take pictures of people presenting their speeches or games on stage. These are some pictures that i took shown below.

     Group photo of Curtin Sarawak's PVC, DPVC, senior academic staff, Unilife staffs and also the          new students that joined this semester

    Photo of new students talking to each other during the meet and greet session.

Other than taking photos of the event, I also talked to some of the students to know more about the event and to get some students for interview later on. It is a really great experience for me to approach strangers and talk to them. By doing this, it gave me a better idea on who to interview and what to interview later on.

After talking with few new students, i manage to get few students for interview which include local Malaysian and some international students too. 

During the interview session, I have manage to get the information I needed for the media release as well as getting to know them better. Below are some photos of the students I have interviewed.

 Emily from Australia, An exchange student from Curtin Main Campus

                               Danielle from Australia                        Jonathan from Malaysia

Basically that is about it for the Orientation Week program that I have participated in few weeks ago and I think it is a great opportunity for me to learn things from it. 

Stay tuned for the next blog about my internship!!! Thank you for reading :) 

First Ever Proper Internship

Good day everyone, I am Stevenson Tan from Curtin, Miri Campus and this will be my first blog about my PR Internship. Currently, I am having my internship in Corporate Communication Department of Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia which is also my university. I have been studying in Curtin for the 4th years but this is the first time I came into the campus as a staff so it is a very interesting and joyful experience for me. I feel very comfortable to work here because I have been through a lot of different things in this location so stay tune for more and more fun updates!!

Following is a brief info about myself. I am currently in final year and final semester of PR and Marketing and I am born and raised locally in Miri. Prior to this internship, I have only done part time jobs in different company so this is my first proper internship in my life. This internship is guided by the experienced senior corporate communication officer of Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia, Ms. Marcella and along with my lecturer Dr. Kamala. Therefore, it doesn't cause a lot of problem when I am enrolling and settling all the relevant stuff.

I have started this internship few weeks ago and I am learning a lot of stuffs that i have never thought of before with joy. Little sum about my job scope here is basically doing media clipping daily and also to keep the media schedule up to date. It looks like an easy job to read newspaper and go through online news but when it have 7-8 sets of newspaper everyday, it will be a tough one after every weekend especially the long weekend. It takes time and energy to read and look for relevant information but it really helps a lot for us to become a better PR practitioner. Why do I say so? Keeping ourselves up to date on current issues is never a proper job prior to this so I doesn't feel that it is important to know about it. However, after weeks of reading news daily, i really found myself become more up to date to any information and when people are talking about it, I really do know most of them. And that really become an added value for me to be a better PR practitioner and also a better person.

Other than that, I also have some other task like writing media releases, staff database input, attending meetings and a lot more interesting stuff to do and it will be explain in the next blog so remember to check it out soon.

Below is something about my working space. My workspace is very spacious, well equipped and at a very nice position of the office. As it is shown in the picture below.

 

Media Clipping is my everyday task so there will always be newspaper on my desk and files to keep the relevant news regarding to Curtin University, the competitors and also about industry.

The Corporate Communication Department of Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia is located at John Curtin Building and outside the New Study Area as shown as picture below.

Some other stuff will be available in others blog post so stay tune for more internship related information.

Regards,

Stevenson Tan Jin Heng

Aidilfitri Celebration!

'Selamat Hari Raya, Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri...' (Playing Hari Raya song everywhere)

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all my Muslim friends and colleagues. I wish all of you a great year ahead and stay healthy and young always! Hope my wishes are not too late. :)

Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri has organized Aidilfitri Open House (Majlis Ramah Tamah Aidilfitri) this year. I am glad that I have the chance to celebrate Hari Raya Aidilfitri together with the CEO of Pustaka Negeri Sarawak who is Puan Hajah Rashidah Haji Bolhassan. 

So back to the day of the event, it was started from 7.30PM to 11PM. There were around 200 guests which included the staff of Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri, the Friends of Library (FOL), and the smart partners who have worked together with Pustaka in organizing many activities throughout the years. Besides, the orphans from Hamidah Welfare Complex Miri also been invited to participate in this event.

I have been assigned few tasks for the day:

• Distribute the speeches for the reporters to publish a media release the next day.
• Prepare a media release to be send out to the media outlets.
• Be the PHOTOGRAPHER of the day! Take a lot of nice photographs.

Now, let me share some photographs with you guys! :)

My outfit of the night which was in purple colour baju kurung!

The Regional Manager of Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri, Cik Hajah Salina Haji Zawawi was giving her speech

The guests were entertained with Hari Raya song by the staff of Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri

The orphans from Hamidah Welfare Complex Miri entertained the guests with choir

They are my intern colleagues. Nice to meet you guys :)

From left: Ms.Georgia (the Management staff of Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri), Ms. Robiah (Management intern of Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri), Ms. Jaylyne (Accounting intern of Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri) and me!

A group photo of the staff of Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri with the CEO, Puan Hajah Rashidah Haji Bolhassan (standing 11th from the right) after the event.

Own Reflection & Advice to all the Interns: 

As I mentioned earlier, I would need to write a media release about the event to be published on the newspaper the next day. I have learnt the techniques of writing a media release when I took PR Techniques this unit. I found that the format that I have learnt in the university is different with the format that used by Pustaka. This enable me to learn more formats which might be useful for my career in the future. Besides, I would like to thanks to my supervisor for guiding me on writing the media release and taught me the format and the font that usually used by Pustaka. An advice to all my intern friends, every organisation has different formats on writing the media release, so as a PR Practitioner, we need to be aware of the styles and formats that used by the company.

Another thing I would like to share is that on the next day, my supervisor asked me "which media outlets attended the event last night?" I was glad that I have note down which media outlet attended the event and got to know their names throughout my conversation with them. Therefore, I answered my supervisor "The Borneo Post attended and the reporter was XXXX." 

My last advice to all the Interns, as a PR Practitioner, we should be getting to know all the details of the things that we do. Imagine that if your boss ask you something and you answer him/her in a way that can make him/her impress of you. Why not we do that? Am I right? 

Best regards, 

Daphney Koh 

17635884

Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia

It all starts with PR Internship!

Hello everyone, I am Daphney Koh Han Chien from Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia. So, let me share with you guys what I have did for the past few days of my internship at Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri. First of all, I would like to introduce Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri. It is a state library and it provides many types of information no matter in printed or online resources. The facilities of the library are Children Infotheque, Information Resource Center (IRC), Fragrant Garden and Multimedia Galeri (MMG).

Children Infotheque - This is the place where the children can read the storybooks and also the bonding time with their parents.

Information Resource Center (IRC) - The place where students can borrow the books for research purposes. 

Fragrant Garden - The place where consists of a lot of flora. It is a good place for students to relax themselves when they are tiring from studying at the library. :)

Multimedia Galeri (MMG)

This is my working table :)

On the first day, I have been introduced by my supervisor, Ms. Sofina Tan to my Regional Manager, Cik Hajah Salina Haji Zawawi. Then, Ms.Sofina brought me for a tour and introduced the staff and the facilities of Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri to me. After that, I received the first task which was designing a brochure stating that it is free to apply as member of Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri.

As Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri is a government-owned library and the target audience mostly are students and children, therefore the brochure that need to be given out must be attractive and appealing in order to get their attention. Students and children normally would prefer stuffs that are colorful and nice design.

I have been taught by Ms. Sofina on how to use Photoshop software to design a brochure. Throughout the process I have learnt the skills on designing an attractive brochure and the method on arranging the layout. I would say that it was totally different experiences in using Photoshop as compared to the software, Canva which was taught in the university. The features of these two software are different. However, I am glad that I have the chance to learn and use Photoshop software during my Internship. It is because I might be expert in using different kinds of soft wares to design things when I enter into the workforce in the future. Below is the outcome of my brochure. :)

The Malay version of the brochure

The English version of the brochure

Besides, I also used Photoshop and Canva to design the souvenir items such as the notepads and non-woven bags. 

The cover page design for the notepad

The design on the non-woven bag

Lastly, an internship with Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, Miri is definitely a pleasant place for me to grow throughout these 2 months. I am sure that the experiences that I gain will change me to be a more confident and capable person when I deal with different types of PR tasks. Yet, it might broaden my knowledge and also practicing the professionalism as a PR Practitioner. 

Good luck in your internship everyone! :)

Best regards,

Daphney Koh

17635884

Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia. 

The End of Internship

It's been over 25 working days for my internship program and I have learned a lot. Thanks to my PR supervisor for guiding me throughout the whole period.

Things which I get involved so far:

1. Media releases
     - 7 media releases in total
     - Follow up with media outlets
     - Media monitoring
     - Media clipping

2. Event
     - Organised a visit to orphanage
     - Coming up with proposal
     - Supervising the event

3. Pay visit to media outlets
     - Get known to editors and reporters, make sure to get their names and titles correct

4. Writting letters
     - Organisation's Anual Sponsorship Program
     - Zero Strays Miri and AIESEC Educational Talk in primary schools

I did make some mistakes during the period. Media releases for example, I had wrongly spelled few names in the emails for the media outlet but immediately I sent another email to apologise. Although it's a silly mistake which cannot be made by a PR practitioner but admitting and apologising on the mistake is also important.

Even though my internship period has ended and it's time to prepare for the finals but after everything is done I will still continue to stay in the organisation to help them out as well as continue to learn from them.

Thanks for reading.

~Elson Tsen~