Internship Arrival

Well today was the day of my internship interview! We were a little nervous about the journey because we weren't exactly sure where we were headed and we had a lot of tube changes along the way. However, we followed the well layed out map (provided by our wonderful assistant director Beth), and headed down Hoxton Street. Kiley and I were in agreement with out feelings as we headed down the street, feeling alittle overdressed for our environment. Not that it was a "ghetto" or anything but it was not what we were used to back at Vandon, let alone at home. We found the Hoxton Trust Building with no problem and 15 mins to spare. We waited in a little office and exchanged questioning looks. We were without a doubt feeling a little doubtful and on edge about the situation and were not picturing anything like it at all. We had no idea what we would be doing! Thoughts of cleaning and organizing were what we were afraid of. This did not seem like a very organization or professional firm. Then we talked about what we would do if we had to work past dark and had to walk home through that street! We were a little aprehensive to say the least. However, Karina, our supervisor arrived around 11 and started to discuss our expectations and her hopes of accomplishment this semester. As we discussed this my worries melted away. She knew exactly what she wanted us to do and she has high expectations for our participation!



I will be working with Hoxton Trust. It is an advising organization who trains people in areas of business, legal and horticulture. It is a place where people can train to get an edge before they enter the full-fledge job market. Many are women who are learning english and want to get out into the working world for the first time. A marketing analyist came to the organiI will be working with another girl from my program, Kiley, and we will be working organization close to a year ago and come up with a plan to help them improve their image. Before that they were focused their decisions around how it would impact the community. However, they have different divisions in the organization, each with its own goals and projects that Hoxton Trust as a whole had a cloudy image. What another girl from my program, Kiley and I will be doing is working on a database that will have all the information about their organization but can be broken down into relevant data for the clients for their specific needs. For example, all the legal stuff or all the english classes or the gardening/horticulture training. Another big project we will be working on is their newsletter. They sent one out before Christmas and Karina, our supervisor, wants to get for sure one if not two out before our time ends. Going off of the project we will be conducting interviews/market research of past clients to track the impact Hoxton's services has on individuals and businesses and then compiling those stories into information we can use in our newsletter to keep people informed on what they are all about.



As we left the meeting we were very excited about our internship and we talked about how we actually have projects we will be sort of in charge of! Karina even said she will be asking us for advice on how to do things better. I really feel like this is going to be an excellent opportunity and provide amazing experience upon graduation in the spring!

The rest of the afternoon was spent trying to figure out my timetables for my LMU class next week and all the logging in that comes along with that.

We officially had the best meal yet tonight: pesto pasta with chicken made from scratch! So so good! Again Jackie and Britta (2 of the three that stayed from last semester) pulled us through, although we each had our job to do to make this a success! Not only am I learning about the British culture, but I'm getting cooking lessons as well!