By Steve Biko Abuya, Maseno University, Kenya
As I left Lola Kenya Screen on August 1, 2014 having completed a rigorous three-month internship as a partial requirement for graduation from Maseno University in western Kenya, I was very grateful for the opportunity.
I had joined Lola Kenya Screen as a Public Relations Intern charged with PR and Social Media Writing, Graphic Design and Video Production on May 12, 2014. I had also been required to write three publishable journalistic articles every week.
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My internship at Lola Kenya Screen gave me a clear picture of what is expected of an employee in the workplace: diligence, time-consciousness, flexibility, working under minimal supervision and thinking on my toes.
I got the opportunity to attend three of Lola Kenya Screen’s monthly film screening, discussion and networking forum. My duties here were to take Public Relations pictures and file reports on the proceedings. The fora gave me the opportunity to interact with several film practitioners and film enthusiasts and managed to build a professional network. These meetings also provided a platform on which to exchange ideas on film and criticism and thus helped broaden my perspective and skills in video editing, screen directing and general film production.
Out of the targeted 36 articles I was to have published by the end of my internship, I managed to have 16 of them making it through. Some of the pictures I had taken, too, were used to illustrate journalistic and PR articles on ArtMatters.Info and LolaKenyaScreen.Org, respectively. Some were also used in the social media pages of the organisation.
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Lola Kenya Screen offered me the opportunity to learn and practise cultural journalism and criticism. I now realise that there is always more to an event than what is seen on the surface.
I can comfortably say that writing on cultural journalism has helped me a lot as I see the same kind of style that is used at Lola Kenya Screen being applied in quality regional newspapers such as Kenya’s The East African. This assures me that my time at Lola Kenya Screen was not in vain.
The experience at Lola Kenya Screen also helped me in my own personal growth in that I managed to work under strict deadlines and pressure.
Though it looked as though it would be difficult to adapt to the writing style used at Lola Kenya Screen, it gradually became less challenging with the guidance of my supervisor and the house style, How to Write on 1001 Subjects!
The opportunity that I was accorded was enlightening and I would highly recommend the organisation to any other party interested in acquiring skills in creative and cultural entrepreneurship. I am grateful for the chance, time and patience given to me and I will be ready to assist in any way possible should any event come up in future.
Steve Biko Abuya, a final year Bachelor of Arts student specialising in Communication & Media Technology with IT, graduates from Maseno University in December 2014.
I a third year student at Moi University, taking BA Linguistics, media and Communication.I would like to know about the internship programme.
I would really like to undertake my internship with you, from January to March 2015, especially in the department of cultural journalism and public relations.