Reflecting on Our Return to In-Person Intern Pursuit
By Hannah Mason, Quotes VP of Special Projects
Virtual no more! On Thursday, Oct. 14, Quotes, the Ad/PR Club at UCF hosted our first in-person Intern Pursuit since March 2020. Pre-pandemic, Intern Pursuit always attracted a large crowd, and we were excited to have such an encouraging turnout this semester as our premiere event made its return.
In total, 43 Quotes members and 74 non-members attended to give us a total of 117 students. We even had a handful of students who just happened to walk by the UCF Student Union and were curious about the event who ended up going inside and networking with employers.
Since I joined Quotes in the fall semester of 2020, this happened to be my first in-person Intern Pursuit as a member. I didn’t know what to expect and even printed more resumes than I needed! However, I really liked how relaxed and organized the whole event was. I got to make personal connections face-to-face with employers and talk to them about my interests, which felt more meaningful than networking through email or LinkedIn. It also was a great opportunity to learn more about what each organization was looking for in an intern. In the end, I felt well informed and more prepared to apply for the internships that caught my attention.
Even though we were able to shift away from a virtual model, our board still had to be mindful of the pandemic and implement health and safety protocols to keep everyone who attended Intern Pursuit safe. As a result, we had social distancing between tables, encouraged masks, and even offered a virtual component for remote and non-local internship opportunities.
The virtual component of our event was launched on our website the week after the in-person event. This online component offered even more opportunities for students to network with employers and offered the flexibility of remote learning. For example, my last two internships were both remote, which made it even more accessible for me to get the experience and class credit I needed since I could do work when it was most convenient to me, like in between classes.
Overall, our return to in-person Intern Pursuit went smoothly. It’s always the busiest and most challenging time of the year for our board, but we all learned a lot during the planning process. In the end, it was so worth it to see everyone come out after a year and a half of not being able to be together.
Whether in-person or virtually, Intern Pursuit has continued to give UCF students the resources they need to secure internships and gain experience in the field. See you next semester!
