Hi, my name is Kylie Shelon and I am a part of the Chapman University 2023 graduating class. I am currently interning at The Red Door Films as a social media manager intern. As a communication studies major, I know my options in terms of internships are broad, meaning I have many varying opportunities to explore and get a better understanding of what I may want to do with my career in the future.

During the end of my fall semester in November of 2020, I felt the urge to start something new. After being asked by an older friend if I was interested in an internship, I immediately felt this was my opportunity to take a chance and learn about social media and the film industry from a deeper perspective. This internship revolved around creating posts to advertise and raise money for a documentary about World War II and the women pilots who served. A lot of my tasks involved researching female pilots, both present-day and past women who served for our country and have made a difference within the world of aviation.

In addition to research, I have learned how to use different programming platforms such as Hootsuite, which allows creating several social media posts in one location. I find the creation of the social media posts to be very satisfying as the fan base of the social media sites enjoys learning more about these women pilots. Many readers are either friends or relatives of the women pilots who served in WWII. I also get to participate in weekly meetings with the director and producer of the film. During these meetings, I learn the inner workings of what it takes to create a documentary and see the excitement and passion of the other individuals who are also a part of The Red Door Films team.

Successful Instagram Post

Getting started at this internship was a little rocky, as I was slightly overwhelmed by the materials I was working with and was not confident with my abilities to provide the team with what they needed. However, this changed after the first few weeks when I made a system of organization for myself and the other members of the social media team. This allowed us to grow our fan base on social media sites and our overall following. One week, I produced three different posts on women in aviation, all of which received over 10,000 likes; this is something that has never been done before. This boosted my confidence as the director and producer of the team were very happy with my work, and this allowed me to be more spontaneous with my work and the way I went about performing for my internship.

One thing that stuck out to me during my internship was the level of preparation I felt due to my experience in public speaking and interpersonal communication classes. During my weekly meetings, I feel confident in my ability to communicate to the large audience that is my entire team. I know I can deliver my materials and updates without doubt of my credibility because of my experience in my classes in The School of Communication. Having a background in interpersonal communication aided in my reaching out to other members of my team and my bosses. I knew how to address varying groups of people and knew how to relay specific information. Being a Communication Studies student has made a big difference in the way I approached this internship. It allowed me to be successful in the work I created in my internship and in the relationships I built.