PR in the Real World

My internship is at the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Western Australia (MSWA). MSWA provides various services to people living with MS such as physiotherapy, counseling, occupational therapy and more. All the money raised through various events and donation appeals goes towards these services and research into unlocking the mystery of MS. There is no cure or known cause for MS, therefore the research aspect gives many people hope for the future.

My first day consisted of various meet and greets before getting straight into work. My supervisor, Taryn, assigned me the responsibility of interviewing a volunteer at MSWA who had recently won an award for his volunteer work. My task was to interview him and write a story that will be published on the website and in their quarterly newsletter: Movers and Shakers. It took me quite a while to get back in PR mode, but eventually I came up with a good set of questions to ask for my interview.

George Leathley was the star of my article, and I thought my questions would lead into a memorable and emotional story. George was awarded Citizen of the Year for his contribution to the community. Taryn had already briefed me on his background so I was aware that he volunteered for three different organisations, so I thought a good question to start with was – “What got you interested in becoming a volunteer?” The answer I got was completely different to what I was expecting.

George’s reply was, “to receive Centrelink benefits I had to complete 30 hours of volunteer work a fortnight.” This is a perfectly fine answer but it was definitely not the angle I was going for. The remaining answers weren’t much different; they were very honest but got straight to the point. I knew I had a lot of work to do.

After five hours I managed to finish, with nearly ten drafts for an article with only 300 words.

Once I had completed George’s story, I had to write about five more stories for the newsletter, which were mainly on upcoming events for MSWA.

Writing George’s story was a really challenging task for me, as I wasn’t expecting that amount of responsibility on my first day. Now it is completed I feel more confident in my work and I hope by the end of this internship, I will have gained all the skills needed to become a PR professional.

Until next week, Gabby