The Beginning

Hi everyone,

I have officially finished my first week at the Curtin University Alumni Relations office. This office focuses on maintaining relationships with Curtin University graduates. They accomplish this through marketing, media, advertising and public relations. I already feel a part of the office with my own desk and space. Thank you to everyone in the office for being so friendly and making me feel welcome :) It has only been one week but I am loving being able to apply my skills to real life situations.

I jumped right into my new role with some research tasks. I was given a list of graduates from Curtin University and asked to find information about them. This information was going to be used to put together profiles on the graduates for Cite Magazine. Now at first I thought research, yes this won't be so bad. Well, it was actually quite challenging to find quality information about these graduates. Some were very difficult to find valuable information that could be used for publication. I eventually got the hang of it but I did learn that research is not an 'easy' task. I hope that Cite magazine find the templates I put together interesting and useful :)

In all of my strategies for uni I have put down monitor the media as a strategy to measure the outcome of my objectives (as I'm sure many of us have). This week I learnt how to use Media Portal, which is a fantastic way for Curtin University to monitor their media coverage. Any articles whether they be print, radio or tv, that mention Curtin University are detected and placed into folders on media portal. My job was to go through these folders and find any articles that related to the Alumni Relations office. At first this was confusing but once I learnt how to use the site I found it really interesting. I felt like this was a very useful way to monitor the media and ensure the Alumni Relations office are keeping up to date and in contact with their graduates.

I really enjoyed writing two congratulation letters for two separate graduates. This involved doing some research on the graduates accomplishments and their personal achievements. I was able to put the information together in my own writing style to congratulate these graduates on their achievements. I was excited that something I had worked hard on and put together would be sent out to help another person and make them happy.

To finish the week off there was a special afternoon tea in the office to celebrate Nicola's 40th birthday. Happy Birthday Nicola!

I am excited to continue my internship and learn more about the Alumni Relations office. I hope everyone else is enjoying their placement too!

Kelly 14288492