Seen and Heard "Time to Shine Week"

Hey Fellow Interns!

I’m finally on the home stretch and in my last few days of working at Seen and Heard in Mundaring and I have finally been doing some hands on PR stuff!

Last week Seen and Heard collaborated with the local high school to create the “Time to Shine Youth Week” which we had the job of planning and organising. This week was basically made to make the students of the high school kind of let go and “shine” and just be who they are. The week involved myself and another co-worker going down to the school at lunch times and putting on activities for the students. The aim of this was to try and get the students to move away from their traditional social “cliques” and stop acting “too cool” and just to be young and have fun participating in activities we put on for the week.

The first day we put music on in the undercover area and threw lollies out to the students, the aim of this was to “break in” to the school, basically to make the kids think we were cool and not lame or try hards trying to get their attention so that they would participate in our activities through the week.

The second day we played knock out competitions with basketball and soccer shootouts. I was given the unfortunate role of being goalkeeper which actually turned out to be pretty fun once i got over the fear of having my teeth knocked out by a soccer ball.

The third day we organised for a DJ performing in the undercover area and put on beat boxing and break dancing competitions. We also had to have some photos taken of use for the school newsletter.

The fourth day we played a bunch of food competitions. There was one which required kids to sip water then have a spoonful of this power that makes water thick and frothy and they had to hold it in their mouths for as long as they could until spitting it out. Basically we had 20 kids lined up and look like they were vomiting, the video is hilarious but unfortunately due to consent restrictions I am not allowed to publish and photos or videos of the students online.

The final day involved the number one youth speaker in America coming down and giving a motivational speech as well as speeches from services in the area including Seen and Heard. I’m not going to lie, it was pretty scary giving a speech to over 400 students all staring at you but i sucked it up and gave my speech and played a giant game of heads or tales with them which loosened everyone up a lot and gave me better public speaking skills.

Each day we would also promote Seen and Heard as a Youth programme and try and get students to sign up and join our CREW. We also handed out flyers and posters about our upcoming events and school holidays activities and give a small speech at the start about what Seen and Heard is and what the “Time to Shine Week” was all about.

This week made me think of the future and my career prospects. Having such a hands on experience was awesome and i think that when i get a full time job in the industry i would like to actually attend the events and do some promotional work myself rather than just planning behind a desk in the office. It was really rewarding to see all of our planning come together and to not only attend but also to be involved in how everything turned out and i really enjoyed myself. I am probably going to look at having a role which involves event management as well as PR or possibly work for a small company or organisation which will require me to do a lot of the hands on stuff as well as the paperwork.

Has anyone else figured out what they want from PR from their own internships like I have?

I would love to attach the photos but am legally not allowed so I have just added one from when the dj let me stand behind his booth :)

Caitlin

Bentley
14283109