During the Spring 2019 semester, I interned at the Mayor’s Office in Warwick, Rhode Island. I served as the Public Relations Writing Intern for Mayor Joseph J. Solomon. My mentor was Sue Baker, the Business Development Planner. (Although she works for the Planning Department, she is currently serving as a communications correspondent in the Mayor’s Office. She was the press secretary for former Mayor Scott Avedisian for 15 years.) While there, I learned about and composed the kinds of documents that are necessary to support the Mayor in his duties.

Working in the Mayor’s Office allowed me to have a very hands-on experience with many different types of documents. My main duties included the following: 

• Conducting research and creating briefing sheets about event the Mayor would be attending;
• Composing press releases for the local media to let them know what the Mayor would be up to;
• Writing proclamation letters for Warwick residents who made great achievements.

Aside from this, I worked with City databases and an Excel workbook to send out condolence letters to the Warwick relatives of deceased people, wrote the April newsletter in the Pilgrim Senior Center’s monthly bulletin, and even wrote some speaking points for the Mayor.  I also had the opportunity to get out of the office and accompany him to some events. It was gratifying to see my writing come to life as it helped him build strong relationships with Warwick business owners, officials, and residents. For example, at his business “One-on-One” visit to Russ’ Ocean State Harley Davidson, he congratulated the business owners about winning the Gold Bar and Shield Award for excellent customer service in 2017. The owners were impressed and flattered that the Mayor was privy to such a specific detail.

The most significant work I completed were press releases for the local media. These documents made the most contact with the outside world and I was proud to be the representative for the Mayor’s Office. Most of the ones I wrote during my internship were concerned with the Mayor’s weekly “One-on-One” visits with Warwick business owners. To start, I would conduct research on the business itself and then write up a briefing sheet. Once this was completed, I would write up a draft of a press release and have my supervisor review it. After a few rounds of revision, I would submit it to her to send it out. The biggest lesson that I learned while creating press releases was that I had to be more objective than subjective in my writing. Oftentimes in briefing sheets I would include if a business had a really good review on Yelp to let the Mayor know how much customers liked it. This information would not be appropriate to include as a representative of the Mayor’s Office through a press release. My job was to inform about the Mayor’s whereabouts, a bit of background on the business, and the reason why he was going to pay a visit.

When I was searching for internships last semester, all I knew was that I wanted to have a “writing” one. Just like my career goals, I knew that I wanted to do something with writing, but had no idea about the specific type, etc. This internship cleared the fog and helped me to see that I want to pursue copywriting. I have always loved all genres and types of writing, which previously made it difficult to choose just one. I absolutely loved creating all the different documents while at the Mayor’s Office and was pleased to discover that I can do the same things as a copywriter.