Interning at Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council

By Nichola Nease
I loved my opportunity to work at NOPEC (Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council). I loved this internship because it gave me a wide variety of experiences and allowed me to use some of the skills I learned in school in a real-world environment.
One of my main duties was assisting running the Facebook and Twitter accounts, posting daily content about energy facts, community outreach, and circulating NOPEC videos. I also worked on the NOPEC website quite often, both writing articles for the company blog and editing existing ones.
I enjoyed the number of unique experiences I had at my internship where I learned things outside the realm of public relations. I was able to be in several videos shot with the other interns, which was a really fun experience. It taught me a lot about video production and how creating videos helps boost brand awareness. Writing the blog posts, which were mostly about energy aggregation, STEM, energy efficiency, and other science-related topics gave me a greater understanding and appreciation of those subjects that I had almost no knowledge about before starting my internship.
 I assisted with two large sponsorship events, the Rockin’ On the River concert series in Lorain and The Energy Bike Project event. For Rockin’ On the River, I worked on a ticket giveaway contest, and created a Facebook advertisement and promotional items. After attending the event, I also helped mail prizes from a raffle we held at the concert out to the winning participants. The Energy Bike Project, which is a 3-day event that teaches local middle school girls STEM skills while they build a bike that conducts electricity, was a very rewarding experience. I wrote a press release about the event, which was featured in some of the newsletters of the participating schools.
Another thing I greatly appreciated was how I never felt like just an intern at NOPEC. I felt like I was treated respectfully just like any full-time employee. The interns were invited to meetings and encouraged to participate often. I felt like a true member of the team, and will miss the wonderful people and experiences I had while interning at NOPEC.
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