C.O.D. Student Wins National Internship Award
By Jen Duda
A sophomore transfer student from DePaul University, Ashley Porter held a 2008 public relations internship at Illinois nonprofit, Humanitarian Service Project while attending College of DuPage. Originally pursuing core credits for a Journalism major, she soon aimed her concentration towards Public Relations and applied for a summer internship under the guidance of her professor and faculty adviser, Casey Slott. When Ashley Porter registered at College of DuPage in 2008, her goal was to investigate her interest in journalism and come up with a career plan.“I changed majors my junior year at DePaul University and didn’t know what I wanted to do,” the Hinsdale resident said. “So I came here and was taking mass communication, public relations and news writing.”
What Porter realized almost immediately was that she didn’t like the constraints of Associated Press style, but she enjoyed the creativity of public relations. So when public relations professor Casey Slott recommended she look for an internship, Porter was intrigued, but thought the idea unrealistic.
“I was here for 18 credit hours,” she said. “I didn’t think there was enough time.”
Cooperative Education and Internship program manager Jean Spahr encouraged Porter to find an internship, arguing that while the timeline was tight, it wasn’t impossible. With Slott’s recommendation to find a position with a nonprofit organization, the 22-year-old started her search, quickly coming up with an opportunity at Humanitarian Service Project in Carol Stream.
After applying and being accepted, Porter offered to help the organization reach a wider audience and quickly went about establishing a Facebook cause page for the group, writing press releases and using other online tools like Volunteer Match.“I was only there three months, but by the time I left, there were just under 100 people on the Facebook page,” she said. “With Volunteer Match, there were a lot more people looking for internships with Humanitarian Service Project so people were getting more information on the organization.”
Porter was flattered when she was the College’s Gold Internship Award, but was hesitant to apply for the National Cooperative Education and Internship Association Award.
“Thinking about going to work at a tiny nonprofit and playing on the computer seemed so insignificant to me compared to what other students were doing,” Porter said, with a laugh. “One student worked at Argonne. Now that’s huge.”
But when Porter received the e-mail informing her she’d won the national award, it took more than a few reads to convince her it was true.
“Really, I had no intention of doing an internship,” she said. “I was just here to learn about communication and it all just kind of happened.”
The internship was worthwhile, but stressful as Porter juggled classes, a full-time job and the internship. Everything she accomplished, however, paid off. She’s returned to DePaul full time, changed her major to public relations and advertising and, with credit for C.O.D. classes she’ll take this summer, plans to graduate next spring.
“The help I received here was so unexpected,” Porter said. “People in the internship office here at C.O.D. actually sit down and talk to you. It wasn’t something I was used to at DePaul and I don’t think I could have accomplished what I did without Jean Spahr and Professor Slott.”
During her internship at HSP, Ashley worked on implementing ways the organization could reach its publics beyond traditional print-media, and explored the potential benefits of social media relations through mediums like online volunteer networking databases and local nonprofit listings, blogs, and most notably, Facebook as a means of effective two-way communication. Since completing her internship, Ashley has returned to DePaul University and is currently serving on the executive board as Historian for DePaul’s PRSSA (Public Relations Student Society of America) chapter
