If you don't already know about Her Campus from UNC's chapter (which is one of the four largest HC chapters, go us!), HC is an online magazine for college women with both national and school-specific content. It was started in 2009 by three Harvard undergraduates and basically exploded from there. Now, there are more than 200 campus chapters in the U.S. and abroad and more than 3,000 contributors (that was the short explanation; here's the long one). Basically I'm amazed every day at what the three founders have accomplished — and continue to accomplish — at such a young age, especially in an era where magazines are dying off. It's such an incredibly inspiring place to work!
The great thing about HC being a start-up company is that I get a LOT of responsibility as an intern. I have yet to file papers, fetch coffee or fax anything; in fact, on my first day I wrote an article, and a few days later I went from intern to section editor! The former editor of the Life section decided to step down and my editor, Stephanie Kaplan, appointed me to replace her. For this job, I edit four articles a week, which is really exciting because I absolutely love editing. Also, the Life section is where the study abroad articles go! :)
I'm also in charge of the HC content that gets uploaded to The Huffington Post. I was definitely excited about this because I'm a huge fan of HuffPost, and it's really interesting to see how HC's many content partnerships work. My other duties include writing articles, monitoring campus chapters, writing for the News Blog and Catwalk to Campus blog, updating some of HC's social media, approving comments on the site and even helping with some event planning. I'm basically amazed every day at the incredible experience I'm getting. I'm the kind of girl who likes to have a lot to do, and that's definitely the case with my internship!
CAFME, if there's any intern advice I have for you guys so far, it would be to not discount the smaller companies when you look for an internship. Her Campus might not be as big as Vogue or GQ, but the small office gives me a lot more responsibility and experience than I would've gotten at a larger publication, and I can't possibly describe how lucky I feel to have ended up here.
In addition to the awesome experience I'm getting in the office, I'm also having some amazing experiences outside of the office. Last night my fellow editorial interns and I went to a Marie Claire event for female entrepreneurs where Jennifer Gilbert spoke about her new book, "I Never Promised You a Goody Bag." It was amazing being surrounded by all those young, enthusiastic women accomplishing their dreams; it really gave me hope that I can actually accomplish what I want to do even with the job market in the state it's in.
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| Me (far left) and my fellow editorial interns at the event! |
Well, that's all for now, folks. Write to you later!
-Michelle
P.S. If you want to read what I'm writing this summer, click here!
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