Sunday, June 4, 2017

Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well.

I'm a working girl! I'm about to jump into my fourth week as the Communications & Marketing intern at the Greater Des Moines Partnership. Three weeks in, I feel like I have a good idea of what my summer in this position will look like, and I definitely think I'm going to learn a lot this summer!

Ever since accepting the position — and especially since starting the internship — I've been thinking about all of the internship experiences I've had in the last few years. My internship experience actually dates back to senior year of high school, when I landed not one but two internships for the year. I thought it would be fun to take a little stroll down internship memory lane and highlight the positions I've had.

My junior year of high school I applied for a program called School-to-Work. School-to-Work allowed seniors to take a term-length careers course and then enter the real world as an intern with an organization related to their career goals for the rest of the year. I was so excited to see my name posted on the instructor's window announcing that I had been selected with less than fifty other students to participate in the program, out of over 100 applicants.

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Explore your interests and major to pinpoint what your aspirations are.

Her Campus is one of my absolute favorite things on the planet. It's a publication that has helped me grow as a writer and editor. It's an organization that has helped me develop my leadership skills. It's a brand that promotes just good old girl power. I absolutely love Her Campus.

Last week my relationship with Her Campus developed even further, so I decided that for the blog this week, I'm going to look at the evolution of my relationship with Her Campus.

In a previous post, I reflected on my experiences as a contributor who first joined Her Campus Iowa and my first semester as Campus Correspondent: Editor-in-Chief of Her Campus Iowa. I wrote that post in February, which was a little into my second semester in this position. I'm going to pick up my story where that post left off...

Thursday, July 28, 2016

We need to stop telling women, "Get a mentor and you will excel." Instead, we need to tell them, "Excel and you will get a mentor."


What a weekend! I'm back from my second trip to NYC for the year, and it was so, so amazing. After attending Her Conference, I'm feeling refreshed, motivated, inspired, and confident.

Her Conference is the annual conference in NYC put on by Her Campus. As you probably know, I am the Editor-in-Chief of the University of Iowa chapter of Her Campus. This year was the fifth annual Her Conference, and I am so glad I went! Four of us from our chapter went, and it was such a great bonding experience for us.

The first event of the weekend was Friday night at Rebecca Minkoff's store in SoHo. At the event we got to mingle with girls from other Her Campus chapters across the country. It was fun to look around the store and chat with the other girls. Then we actually got to meet Rebecca Minkoff! She was so kind and so sweet, and it was a great way to start off the weekend.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Go forth and do well. But, more importantly, go forth and do good.


I've always loved the idea of doing good things, and I try really hard in my daily life to actually do good things.

In high school I was a part of an organization called RAK, which stands for Random Acts of Kindness and Rachel's Ambassador Klub. We did various service activities and volunteer projects. Being involved in RAK really triggered my interest in service and volunteering and just plain old kindness. It became one of my biggest passions and my number one goal to be kind.

I started thinking about ways I could incorporate this newfound passion into my future. I knew there would always be opportunities to be kind and volunteer my time, but I wanted to make a career out of it. I wanted to be kind full-time and promote the idea of being kind to everyone I could.

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.

On Sunday, the movie "Spotlight" won for Best Picture at the Oscars. "Spotlight" was one of the few movies that was nominated this year that I actually saw, and it was so good. Yes, it's about a very important issue that came to light a few years ago, and that's important to talk about. But what I loved most about the movie is that it was about journalism.

Here at the University of Iowa, I am studying Journalism and Mass Communication. I decided to go into journalism because I have always loved to read and write. One of my favorite high school English teachers told me that good readers study English, and good writers study Journalism. I knew I wanted to write, so I followed the latter path (though I am also minoring in English).

When I decided to pursue journalism, I didn't really realize just how much it really suits me. I didn't realize until after about a year of studying journalism that it's right for me for another very important reason: I love to listen. And I'm good at it.