The Following Weeks

My first three days at BERJAYA University College of Hospitality (BERJAYA UCH) were so full of activities that I couldn't wait to get started with work the next week.

Due to the many preparations that needed to completed before the Open Days, Ms. June wasn't left with much time to sit down with me and brief me on everything. Hence, the next week was the time when she sat me, Nicolle and one other addition to the PR, Comm & Events team, Ms. Chewie Ng - no, Chewie and Ms. June are in no way related - down and went through everything that the team has been involved with and are preparing for thus far.

Considering that I've just joined the team, Ms. June gave me the more simpler tasks to take care of. Those tasks are the following:

1. Media Monitoring - that is, going through the newspapers every morning.
2. Keeping track of the gift and job requisitions and recording them down in their specific log books - because of the lack of staff and many things to do, they had little time to organize the requisitions and record them down into the log books.
3. Taking down minutes during meetings and briefings.

The tasks listed above only increased the longer my internship went on. One time, as I was looking through the BERJAYA UCH website as research for a part of my internship report later on, I spotted some typographical errors and pointed them out to the Social Media Department whose stations were just beside us from PR, Comm & Events. From then on, as soon as Ms. June heard about my spotting these errors, she immediately assigned me to proof read everything on the website, as in, every single page. It took me 10 working days or so to get it all done, and as soon as I did I immediately submitted my findings to Ezran from the Social Media Department for corrections. Ms. June was happy with my work, and so was our Chief Operating Officer, Ms. Mae Ho, as soon as she heard about my work.

My list of responsibilities didn't stop there, however. Soon enough I was included in the editorial team of the up and coming student news letter, "The Concierge," which should be inaugurating this coming end of March. At the time of my introduction to the team, five students were involved in the editorial team:

1. Chief Editor - Sabrina
2. Deputy Editor/Writer - Sheilah
3. Editor for Clubs and Societies - Sattis
4. Chief Photographer - Jana
5. Chief Designer - Jayson

Now they have additional members to the editorial team. By the time i left my placement, they've already found a writer, and an assistant photographer. The more the merrier, I say. BERJAYA UCH never runs short of news and events.

My internship went along at BERJAYA UCH and the more responsibilities Ms. June trusted me with. I had to keep track of upcoming events and update our department's white board accordingly. And in my second month or so, Ms. June started to trust me to write-up press releases. Now, any information we intend to release to the public, has to go through our assigned copywriter,Sarah, before actually releasing them. With every press release I wrote, Sarah would point out any improvements I have to work on which really helped me grow as a writer and I really appreciated her mentor-ship. I shall be attaching some of my best work (according to Sarah) in the appendices of my final report.

All in all, that's about it, aside from helping out with events, interviews and so and so. The PR, Comm, and Events Team worked closely with the Creative and Multimedia Team as well as the Social Media Team, especially when concerning pictures, greeting cards (since it was festive season), and some special requisitions for corporate gifts and the such.

Working with BERJAYA UCH has been fun. I made new friends and learned new skills whilst applying skills I had already learned in my PR classes and in my past part time employment in Melia Kuala Lumpur Hotel. There were, of course, some constructive criticism and tough love that came from Ms. June, but those I absorbed to better myself, and make myself as efficient as possible not only for the sake of the team and/or the University College, but also for my own sake and my future employment.

In my next blog post, I shall be talking about the many events I was involved with. That blog post promises to be a colourful and entertaining one. Though, I'm not sure if I'll be able to fit everything in one single post. I might have to break it into two parts. Until next time!