Jason Kearse – Communications Internship

My second-semester internship was with the ELANCO Tech Department at Garden Spot High School. I learned many things during the second semester, including skills in event management, event planning, and I continued to build upon my social skills. My daily duties and routine included planning events for the second half of the school year and keeping the district social media up to date.

During the spring semester, one of the projects I worked on was planning the ELANCO Learning Summit held on February 14^th. Over one-thousands educators attended to learn of the ways students are being taught in local districts of Pennsylvania. Pedro Rivera, Pennsylvania Secretary of Education, was present at the Learning Summit and gave a speech to the educators on the importance of education and the way teach their students. He also sat in on several presentations, adding his own input and asking questions. This project taught me so much about the amount of work and time put into an event so big. Making sure people knew where to go and everything was going smoothly was also a big step in learning.

During the Learning Summit, I accompanied Secretary Rivera through the school to take pictures of him interacting with the various presenters. Seeing as my future career will be in education, it was an amazing experience to see how truly invested Secretary Rivera was in making sure the students of Pennsylvania were given the best education possible, and that teachers across all levels were equipped with the means to provide them with said education.

Continuing to work with the ELANCO Tech Department for the second half of the school year was an experience that has readied me for using my communication skills to the best of my abilities in the future. I feel very fluent and prepared in understanding how to approach people and handle conversing with them. My future in the education field will be deeply involved with communicating not only with students, but their parents, fellow teachers, and various others involved with the school in which I work with. I’m thankful for having this opportunity to further strengthen my social skills and pursue my future career goals.