About

My name is Lauren. I am a freshman in AU’s School of Communication and I absolutely love living and going to school in Washington D.C. I am originally from a small town in Central Connecticut, and while I can’t say that I always miss it, I have learned to appreciate the little things that make New England so beautiful.

I enrolled in the Washington Mentorship Program as a Freshman at AU which required me to have an internship two days a week. I took a long shot when I applied to the Washingtonpost.com since they typically do not take freshman interns, however it was the best chance I ever took. They replied to my application within a few days, I set up an interview, and I was hired.

I am an intern in the Interactivity department which encompasses all of the user-friendly content like blogs. The department also works a lot with opinions. I have worked mostly on four microsites of the post.com (OnFaith, PostGlobal, TheLeague, and OnLeadership.) I have done all sorts of different tasks–editing, photo-editing, html formatting, e-mailing, and most recently video editing. I have had the chance to meet many inspiring people with my work on the site OnLeadership which just launched in early December.

While my first semester internship was full of exciting moments, it also came with hardships. However, the one thing I will say about my internship is that all of my work done there was fulfilling. And I always felt that what I did there mattered.

Remember, although some internships require answering phones, filing, and other busy work, your internship doesn’t have to be! It has been said numerous times that Washington D.C. would not function without interns, and there is a good reason for that. Interns work hard and make a difference. I would encourage anyone to seek out internships in the District. And my best advice would be to never settle. Just because some descriptions may say they only take juniors or seniors, apply anyway! You never know what can happen unless you try.

Happy Interning 🙂

Lauren

 

If you have any questions, you can reach me at lgentile77@sbcglobal.net or simply leave a reply on my blog. I’ll check in often.