I’m Mallika Sinha and I’m a junior Strategic and Corporate Communication Major and a Psychology Minor. Over Interterm 2021, I interned at a company called IHPR, which stands for In House Public Relations. It’s firm that specializes in fashion, jewelry, and lifestyle PR. As their mission statement expresses, they are a “creative communications & marketing agency, focused on building and amplifying brand awareness through media, experiential, influencer and celebrity programming.”

IHPR Website Image

I applied to this internship by Google searching for PR internships and a couple of weeks later, was happy to find an email in my inbox to schedule an interview. I interviewed and was offered the position and couldn’t have been more excited. The job was completely remote due to the ongoing pandemic and I started my position in late November. My daily tasks included sample trafficking and showroom management, trend research, updating client status reports, media and sample lists, and assisting in any day-to-day operations.

 

I was able to apply many concepts and skills from various courses that I have taken at Chapman. Taking Organizational Communication (COM 410) allowed me to understand how a workplace runs on a day-to-day basis and taking Interpersonal Communication (COM 110) helped me apply listening skills, understand nonverbal communication, and know when to adapt my language use to different settings. Especially in this age where Zoom meetings and emails are the primary forms of communication between co-workers, it’s essential to understand certain cues that can be miscommunicated over the online platform.

IHPR Instagram Feed

My favorite part about working as an intern for IHPR was being able to learn more about how brands and products get promoted behind-the-scenes. I was able to understand exactly how as a PR company gets exposure for its clients – for example, how a piece of jewelry goes through a series of steps to end up mentioned in a magazine or modeled by a celebrity and featured on the cover of Vogue.

I went into this internship being inexperienced in PR and not knowing a whole lot about it. However, IHPR taught me that the world of PR is an extremely manageable industry that requires strong social and writing skills as well as staying on top of trends and hot topics. I would highly recommend IHPR as an internship site to Chapman students because even though this internship was completely virtual, I was able to learn so much about the PR industry, from small tasks like updating spreadsheets and drafting emails to clients, to big client pitches and editorial features. My supervisors were extremely patient, helpful, and welcoming, and I enjoyed my experience working with knowledgeable professionals in the PR field.