What I did on my summer vacation (i.e. My internship experience)

(This is me picking my star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.)

The summer is coming to an end, and I am getting ready to start a life after grad school. I completed my internship at NBC at the end of July. Most of my time was spent working in an office, but I got to do a few cool things.

In June, I was in charge of the check-in for the NBC Daytime Emmys after-party. It was getting to see who was on the A, B, and C lists. One day during my internship, I got to meet Jerry Springer. He was a pretty cool and funny guy.

I went to see "The Tonight Show" way too many times. My favorite time was in July when David Duchovny was a guest. I was in love with him for years, and I was lucky enough to be selected to sit in the front row next to the stage. I shook Jay's hand at the beginning of the show and watched myself on TV that night. The best part of that day happened after the taping ended. I saw David walking to his car, and I got an autograph and a picture with him.

Even when I didn't go to the show, I got the opportunity to hear the musical guests who performed outdoors. One of these guests was Coldplay, and several people from the NBC staff stood around outside for each of the rehearsals and the taped performance.

In July, I helped at NBC's part of the Television Critics Association press tour. My duties included searching for online news about the press tour sessions and helping the talent sign-in for the after-party's red carpet. I had to find each actor or producer's poster board-sized cards that listed the person's name and show title. The talent needed these cards so that the photographers would be able to ID them.

Ever since my internship ended, I've been working at a Border's bookstore near my sister's apartment. It's not very glamorous, but I've got the rest of my life to do glamorous things. I'm trying to find a job doing something in TV. Technically, I'm still a student because my final grade hasn't come in yet.

My internship sounds pretty cool in summary, but that's because I've left out the part about answering phones and looking through newspapers for stories about NBC shows. I wouldn't trade my experience for anything. Hopefully, this experience will lead me to a really great job.

Losing One of My Classmates

The past two days have been some of the toughest that I've had in a long time. One of my friends from Syracuse, Alex Taft, was killed in a car accident Wednesday night outside of Denver. I received a call about his death when I was at my internship, but I had my phone on silent at the time. Unfortunately, I learned about what happened through a voicemail message.

Alex was a really cool guy. We were in the same master's program, and we took classes together ever since bootcamp last summer. This semester, I helped him on a show that he created called "Bill Wilkins: Confidential" because I knew that working with him again would be a wonderful experience. Alex was very kind and creative, and I was really looking forward to him moving to LA in a few weeks.

If you want to check out Alex's comedy series, it is on YouTube. I wish that I was still in Syracuse to mourn his death with some of my classmates, but I just have to do what I can in LA.

Starting My Internship

This week, I entered the final part of my master's program, which is a summer internship at NBC Universal. I wish that I could make it sound more interesting than it is, but I have mainly been just finding newspaper and magazine articles about NBC and moving publicity files out of storage. I'm not all that surprised about my duties, however, I am looking forward to being assigned to some of the publicists in a couple of days.

I thought that my family was buying a car for me last weekend. After going to a few car dealerships, my sister decided that I should just take the bus until I get a job. That wouldn't be such a bad thing, except for the fact that I have a four-hour commute everyday that I go in.

My first day was Monday. I met some of the staff in the publicity department and went to an intern orientation that afternoon. There is a studio right next to my office building where "The Tonight Show," "Days of Our Lives," "Access Hollywood," and "The Ellen Degeneres Show" are filmed.

One cool thing that I found out is that the musical guests on "The Tonight Show" have an outdoor concert right next to my building on Wednesday afternoons. This week, I watched Al Green perform a song from his new CD. If I'm lucky, I will get to be one of the interns that helps on the next "Days of Our Lives" promo shoot. I was a big fan of that show when I was an undergrad, so I hope that I'm chosen.

Most weeks, I will only work from Tuesday-Thursday, and I am looking for a part-time job where I can work on some of the other days. The interns do not have to work everyday because the publicity department has several of us this summer. There is an intern from Little Rock, Arkansas, who works everyday, and I have enjoyed talking to her about different locations back home.

No matter what I have to do for my internship, I could not be any happier. I have dreamed about working for NBC for a long time, and I hope that I will be asked to stay there as an employee after this summer is over.

Graduation and Moving to LA

This past week has been one of the busiest of my life. My mom, oldest sister, and my niece came to Syracuse to watch me graduate on Saturday. I participated in the commencement for my specific school, Newhouse. Some of my cousins from Buffalo drove down to see me that day, too. Most of the speeches were boring, but this one advertising graduate student gave a really funny speech. Now I feel bad that I didn't vote for him to begin with.

I came back later to watch part of the graduation for the school of visual and performing arts because Vanessa Williams finally received her bachelor's degree from the school. Her speech was all about herself and how she overcame the scandal after winning Miss America.

I couldn't fully enjoy graduation weekend because I was too busy packing up to move to LA. My immediate family stayed until Monday, and each of them took two bags full of my things in them. A few people asked me whether I would miss Syracuse. I always gave them a loud and excited "no."

During graduation weekend, I was also trying to finish up some work for my job. I thought that I would be done with everything on Friday, but it is pretty hard to get things done with a six-year-old running around. After I took my comprehensive final last Wednesday, I had to take a few days off to mentally recuperate.

I few to LA on Wednesday of this week. It wasn't the most enjoyable flight since I had to make a layover in Detroit and could not go to sleep on the first leg of the trip. I'm living with my sister, Nikki, until I get a job somewhere. I wish that I could tell you that I have been going to wild parties for the past two nights, but I have been playing babysitter to my niece instead.

On Monday, I'm starting my internship at NBC. I hope that this publicity internship will help lead to a job in another flashy field. I will not officially graduate until I finish this summer course, so I will try to take it pretty seriously. Anyway, I should stop writing so that I can learn a little bit more about NBC (by watching Conan).

Finishing Grad School

Today was the big day (not my graduation, that will be on Saturday). One of the last requirements of my graduate program is taking a comprehensive final. All of the students in my program have been dreading this day, but it's finally over. There is only question on the exam, but this is out of a list of 10 questions. Luckily, I got a question that I spent a lot of time studying for yesterday.

I feel so good now. I've been looking forward to graduation, but I could not fully enjoy it until now because I have been studying so hard. My mom and my older sister are flying to Syracuse to see me. This will be really fun because I haven't seen any of them since January. I'm moving to LA next Wednesday so that I can get ready to start my internship the next week.

I have had a lot of good memories in Syracuse this past year. I learned how to walk to class everyday during the winter months through inches of snow (a story that I'm sure I'll tell my grandkids someday). I also became friends with several people in my program, and a lot of us are moving to LA this summer.

I'll check back in after graduation.

I Need a Job!

I have been working really hard of the past week trying to get a job. On Saturday, I applied for a production job at a major broadcast television studio. I was surprised to get two emails last week from my professors about job opportunities in research and ad sales, but neither of the jobs really match my interests.

I was catching up on some work on Friday for the course that I work for, and I ran into one of my students. He convinced me that I should join LinkedIn. I have been hearing a lot about that website lately, so I decided to set up my page. It makes sense that I try to finally set up my professional online presence rather than just posting fun pictures of myself with friends.

Today, I attended the Central New York Communications Consortium at Syracuse University. I met with a few companies and asked the representatives at NBC how to make the most out of my internship in Burbank. I feel like I'm in limbo right now, where I'm glad to have an internship but scared about whether or not I'll find a job.

Enough talk about my career. I'm taking a class this semester called The Business of the Development, and we post summaries of Variety articles on a blog. The website is http://businessofdevelopment.blogspot.com/, so check it out if you're interested.

Later.

Neglectful Kim

After months of hard work at Syracuse University, I am quickly approaching another graduation. My world has been turned upside down ever since I began graduate school.

I have learned more about communications law than I ever could have hoped for since I've been a TA this year. Last semester, I took a media law course on the same day I was a TA for another media law course, and now I work for my former professor. The funny thing is that I made a contact with a person at NBC Universal for a publicity internship through a lawyer in Arkansas.

I went home for Christmas break and watched some of my friends graduate from the college I attended as an undergrad. It was funny because I felt that I had not changed all that much from when I was a student there. I had finally moved away from my hometown, but I still felt like a hometown girl.

At the beginning of January, I went to LA to take an industry seminar course through Syracuse University. I got to meet people in all aspects of film and TV, and I realized that I wanted to work in TV programming and development. I thought that those two fields sounded interesting before, but I had to see what people who work in those areas actually do. I am taking classes in programming and development and helping produce shows for the campus TV station.

I can't believe that I just have a little over a month before I graduate again. I'm moving in with my sister, Nikki, in LA and try to rock my internship. Hopefully, I will be able to network with the right people at NBC so that I can work in an area that I am more interested in.

Life has been pretty fun in Syracuse, but it has taken me a while to find enough to write about (i.e. I have been lazy). More to come as I get closer to graduation.