IMC Hawks Blog

Tag: Core Skills

  • The happiest place to intern

    As Communication Studies majors, the department’s core skills have been cemented into our minds since COM 105. The department’s core skills give its majors direction as they navigate through their classes. When it comes to internships, every core skill is important but praxis allows you to apply knowledge outside the classroom. Knowing theories and knowing how to apply them is essential to being successful in an internship.

    Walt Disney World — the largest on-site employee establishment in the world — offers internship opportunities for almost any major. The eight-month internship is not like many others — Disney provides numerous benefits for their interns, including free park admissions, guest passes, discount-coupon books, and insider information which has not yet been released to the general public. Interns may also enroll in college classes while living in Orlando, and receive credit based on their major. Classes offered include engineering courses, leadership courses, marketing courses, and courses in the culinary arts. Students are also able to take a Disney Heritage course and learn about the history of Walt Disney World and the foundation the empire was built upon.

    Melanie Bower, a current senior and Communication Studies major at UNCW, completed the eight-month Disney Internship from May 2014 to January 2015. During her time in Orlando, Melanie also took classes on leadership and marketing, and is hoping to pursue a career back in Florida related to IMC or digital marketing. How is this internship suitable for COM majors?

    Picture1

    “The Disney College Program teaches the vital skills we study in depth as COM majors – we even utilized the core skills learned in COM 105 in my marketing course at Disney. Every class involved group-work, and we learned how to effectively act, dress, and contribute in a business setting when working for such a big-scale company. Students in any major could gain experience and valuable knowledge from this internship, but having a Communication Studies background gave me an upper hand because I was already aware of how to effectively and efficiently tackle the tasks at hand. Communication also came in handy when working in the actual park. Hollywood Studios during the summertime is hectic, and knowing important tips to communicate effectively to large groups of stressed people gave me a leg up. Public speaking is also paramount in the job I worked.”

     The idea of applying knowledge outside the classroom, or “praxis,” is key in this kind of internship. Interning with such a big company is far different than many local internships students find around Wilmington. COM studies students who decide to head to Walt Disney World must be prepared for a “small fish in a big pond” experience, and use their knowledge of group work, core skills, and conflict management to be noticed and successful within the company. Melanie suggests the longer internship (8 months rather than one semester), if one truly wants to understand the ebb and flow of a monumental enterprise and the way business is carried out throughout the seasons. If you, a COM Studies student, or any other student in a different major is considering the College Program, it is important to understand that the work is daunting and the hours are long; classes are not easy and the weather is sometimes unbearable. But the networking you do, the contacts you make, the lives you touch, and the magical moments you have every day will make this internship well worth it.

    Picture12

    What kind of internship opportunities have you been apart of or look forward to?

    – Nick, Melanie, Mary & Patrick

  • Let’s find the connection

    What is the connection between Corporate Communication and Communication Studies?  Finding this connection may be more difficult than first perceived.  What we do know is that both of these subjects have broad definitions which can be interpreted and defined in a variety of ways.  Communication studies at UNCW is one of the largest undergraduate programs on campus.  The department focuses on eight core skills that are vital to the success of each person within the department. These eight skills include: confidence, intellectual curiosity, responsibility, collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, civility, and praxis.  Within communication studies, students have the opportunity to focus on a number of different concentrations.  The central aspect that each concentration revolves around is the statement of clarifying who we are and what we are about.  This idea creates a strong link between the communication studies major and personal development as a whole.

    Communication Studies @ UNCW

    All this being said, how does this relate in the slightest bit to Corporate Communication? Our team defined Corporate communication as the communicative interaction of building and maintaining a reputation and consistent brand while fostering relationships internally and externally within each level of an organization.  The eight core skills of our department go hand in hand with this definition.  Here are the definitions of them……Core Skills

    After reminding ourselves of the definitions of these skills, it is easier to see how they are necessary for work in a Corporate Communication profession. We can see  that without confidence and praxis, we will be unable to take responsibility for the decisions made when dealing with a company’s reputation and brand; and without the combination of intellectual curiosity and critical thinking, the organization will remain at a stand still. Beyond this we are able to easily say that corporate communication involves various positions within a company. This requires collaboration and civility with and among each individual. Lastly, problem solving is a conjunction of all of these things. Problems that are brought to a company regarding their corporate communication can be successfully solved only by utilizing the other seven skills.

    That is how we view Corporate Communication in terms of our Communication Studies department and skills. It is an extreme understatement to say that we will simply use our skills in our future professions. They will be the cornerstones upon which we operate day to day and all that we do will in some way relate back to one of those skills.

    Haley Williams
    Arielle Williams
    Lora Hampton
    Danielle Dorantich