Months flew by; I got so
comfortable and so used to my desk at the office. My colleagues were awesome,
my team was fantastic – what more could an intern need?
Honestly, I need to give my boss
more credit for being so understanding and flexible with us. She has been
extremely wonderful and patient as I learned my ways around PR in the “real
world”. So far, I have taken a lot of lessons home with me, I feel like I am at
least 70% prepared for the corporate world in the near future. Up until now, my
tasks include having written a total of seven media releases, kept in constant
communication with the media and participated in over seven events under the
CSR department of the company. On top of that, I was given the honor and
opportunity to organize an event of my own, which pushed me to be more
responsible, organized and well prepared.
What I didn’t mention up until
now is the ethical conflict I have always had before I undertook the internship
placement with this particular company. After spending half of my life in
Sarawak, I identified myself as a Sarawakian ever since I could remember. I
grew up here; this is my home. As inhabitants of the third largest Island in the world,
we are proud to be neighbors with some of the most majestic flora and fauna known
to mankind. Thus, you can imagine how we feel about the logging industry. But an
unseen force drove me to take a chance, to get to know the industry a little bit
better, and I realized that a company’s past does not define its current
standing. If people could change, then organizations could too. To date,
Interhill is slowly shutting off every logging camp it owns and continues to
provide local community support to the people affected by its activities by
bringing development, education and supplying jobs to them, alongside
attempting to ease the burden of transportation whenever the residents of the
area require medical attention. The best part is, I am now a part of this
effort, observing their transition in the ways of their business, regardless of
the long established negativity embedded within their corporate reputation
among some of the locals.
As a part of its initiative to
give back to society, there are a total of six CSR programs targeted to aid the
various issues of concern in society. These include the Women Empowerment
Program, Local Community Support Program, Education Initiative, Interhill 365
Green Days Project and the After School Project.
I am honored and proud to say
that I was involved in every single one of these efforts and as a matter of
fact, given the opportunity to organize some activities under each program. For
instance, the biggest challenge for me happened when I was required to organize
my first event under the placement. The brainstorming process was pretty
complicated because I had to think about the nature of my event – what event am
I going to do? Who will be involved? When and where will it take place? What do
I need to make it a success? How many participants would actually turn up? Is
it in line with the company’s CSR initiatives? At that point I figured that I
was lost. I simply didn’t know what I was going to organize. And then it hit me
– I was going to organize Interhill’s first ever blood drive, with the
objectives directly substantiating the Local Community Support Program. It
became a great success!
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| Some of Interhill staff participating in the event. (Note the cameraman in the far right, an RTM (broadcast media) representative!) |
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| My boss doing her part in giving back! |
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| A group photo of us. The organizers and the Red Crescent team. Well done, guys! |
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| The banner I designed. Eye-catching enough? You judge! |
In the end, more than 50 people
participated in the drive and it exceeded our expectations as we thought only
20 would show up. I catered for some delicious red velvet cupcakes for the
participants and I was lucky enough to have ordered 60 of them because
initially I thought of giving them out to Interhill employees. Considering the
amount of turnouts, they were wiped clean off the table in under two hours! It
was undeniably, one of the happiest days of my life, I couldn’t hope for
anything better and I’m pretty sure I made my boss proud (deep down inside, I
hope). :D
On top of the blood drive, I was also
given the oppotunity to organize a few After School Project (ASP) activities
during the time of my placement. The ASP’s main intention is to encourage
volunteerism by providing free education through fun, enthusiasm and love to orphans
or foster kids aged 7 – 18 from Peryatim (Sarawak Orphans Welfare Association),
Kompleks Hamidah Yakub (KHY) and Rumah Amal Anak Kesayangan Kami (RAAK) in Miri.
One of the most memorable ASP activities was when I arranged for the children
from RAAK to perform during the International Festival in Curtin two months
ago. Excited, nervous and enthusiastic, the children rehearsed and practiced
for two weeks straight in order to deliver a mesmerizing performance, which in
the end touched the hearts of every individual present during that evening.
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| Dressed in dazzling and colorful outfits, they were so amazing on stage. |
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| A group photo of the mentors, children and my boss. |
All in all, I had fun. My eyes
are wide open from the experience I had with Interhill. Never in my life I
thought I would go somewhere (I was literally at the brinks of giving up my
studies) and now here I am, at the start of something new and paving a
direction for my future. Thank you, Interhill. Thank you, my friends,
colleagues and sisters in PR.
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| Photo taken during Sterwina's Step by Step event. From left - me, Sterwina, Agnes and Angelyna. |
With love and signing off,
Sarah Sabri, Curtin Sarawak.
