As a senior at Lausanne Collegiate School, students are given the opportunity to have one week off from school to do an internship in a field that they are interested in. Sometimes that internship even involves working with one of the on-campus departments.
Knowing that he wanted to intern in the field of journalism, Phillip Kulubya '20 went to Charlotte Albertson, Lausanne’s director of Annual Giving and Alumni Affairs, so she could help him find the right spot. After a few meetings and conversations about his interests, Phillip spent the week with the Lausanne Communications Department.
The communications team consists of Director of Strategic Communications, Drew Smith, Communications Specialist, Shayne Dotson and Digital Content Manager, Steven Russell.
"I was excited to do an internship with the communication’s team because I have always enjoyed reading their stories, watching their videos, and seeing their photos," Kulubya said. "I admired their videos and photos, but I was mostly interested in the writing aspect of their jobs."
At the end of the week, the communications team sat down with Phillip to discuss the experience.
Lausanne Communications Team: You mentioned being familiar with the department's work. What was the week like?
Phillip: I was exposed to the three things I knew them for: Stories, videos and photography. As soon as I started, I was able to watch Mr. Smith work on video editing. I saw him finish videos for the fourth grade’s egg drop activity and the school’s plein air art trip to Shelby Farms. I learned many things about the video editing process while watching him work. I watched how he adjusts the lighting and color of video footage. I watched how he manipulates and distributes audio and b-roll throughout a video. I watched him cut down and combine different clips to create a narrative as well as watching him use drone footage and interviews to create a coherent video. I was able to help him go through the music selection process for one of the videos.
Lausanne Communications Team: Is there anything that stood out as you watched him edit?
Phillip: Something that I found interesting about his work was that he was paying attention to the number of beats in the songs while making the videos. Mr. Smith also told me about his experiences working on hype videos for the University of Memphis football and basketball teams. I learned about his work on some Memphis Travel commercials and a Rendezvous commercial.
Lausanne Communications Team: What about the photography aspect of things?
Phillip: Ms. Dotson showed me how to use two of team’s cameras. On two occasions, we went to the lower school where she took pictures of lower schoolers and she allowed me to take a few. On my first day, the team’s job was to document the fourth grade’s egg drop activity. In addition to seeing Mr. Smith’s footage of the event, I was also able to see photos that Ms. Dotson had taken of it.
Lausanne Communications Team: You even wrote a story during the week as well!
Phillip: After observing their work process and asking questions, the team gave me the chance to write about the egg drop activity. To get the story done, we had to get information about it from the fourth-grade teachers. The videos and photos that I saw earlier in the day allowed me to start coming up with ideas for the story. Ms. Dotson showed me how to get quotes from teachers and after receiving the response to a question from fourth grade teacher, William Starner, I then truly started writing the story. Through the videos, photos, and Mr. Starner’s great summarization of the event, I was able to write something that I think conveyed the excitement that the fourth-graders felt that day. I learned a lot from her feedback and editing.
You can read Phillip's story on the website by clicking here.